2024/02/16

Vivekananda A Biography, 71-79, VEDANTA IN AMERICA

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VEDANTA IN AMERICA

After the meetings of the Parliament of Religions were concluded, Swanii Vivekananda, as already noted, undertook a series of apostolic campaigns in order to sow the seed of the Vedãntic truths in the ready soil of America. Soon be discovered that the lecture bureau was exploiting him. Further, he did not like its method of advertisement. He was treated as if he were the chief attraction of a circus. The prospectus included his portrait, with the inscription, pro¬claiming his cardinal virtues: "An Orator by Divine Right; a Model Representative of his Race; a Perfect Master of the English Language; the Sensation of the 'World's Fair Parliament." It also described his physical bearing, his height, the colour of his skin, and his clothing. The Swami felt disgusted at being treated like a patent medicine or an elephant in a show. So be severed his relationship with the bureau and arranged his own lectures himself. He accepted invitations from churches, clubs, and private gatherings, and travelled extensively through the Eastern and Midwestern states of America, delivering twelve to fourteen or more lectures a week.
People came in hundreds and in thousands. And what an assorted audience he had to face! There came to his meetings professors from universities, ladies of fine breeding, seekers of truth, and devotees of God with childlike faith. But mixed with these were charlatans, curiosity-seekers, idlers, and vagabonds. It is not true that he met everywhere with favourable conditions. Leon Lands-berg, one of the Swami's American disciples, thus described Vivekananda's tribulations of those days:
The Americans are a receptive nation. That is why the country is a hotbed of all kinds of religious and irreligious monstrosities. There is no theory so absurd, no doctrine so irrational, no claim so extravagant, no fraud so transparent, but can find their numerous believers and a ready market. To satisfy this craving, to feed the credulity of the people, hundreds of societies and sects are born for the salvation of the world, and to enable the prophets to pocket $25 to $100 initiation fees. Hobgoblins, spooks, mahatmas, and ncw prophets were rising every day. In this bedlam of religious cranks, the Swami appeared to teach the lofty religion of the Vedas, the profound philosophy of Vedãnta, the sublime wisdom of the ancient rishis. The most unfavourable environment for such a task!
The Swami met with all kinds of obstacles. The opposition of fanatical Christian missionaries was, of course, one of these. They promised him help if he only would preach their brand of Christianity. When the Swami refused, they circulated all sorts of filthy stories about him, and even succeeded in persuading some of the Americans who had previously invited him to be their guest, to cancel the invitations. But Vivekananda continued to preach the religion of love, renunciation, and truth as taught by Christ, and to show him the highest veneration as a Saviour of mankind. How significant were his words: 
"It is well to be born in a church, but it is terrible to die there!" Needless to say, he meant by the word church all organized religious institutions. How like a thunderbolt the words fell upon the ears of his audience when one day he exclaimed: "Christ, Buddha, and Krishna are but waves in the Ocean of Infinite Consciousness that I am!"
Then there were the leaders of the cranky, selfish, and fraudulent organizations, who tried to induce the Swami to embrace their cause, first by promises of support, and then by threats of injuring him if he refused to ally himself with them. But he could be neither bought nor frightened—"the sickle had hit on a stone," as the Polish proverb says. 

To all these propositions his only answer was: "I stand for Truth. Truth will never ally itself with falsehood. Even if all the world should be against me, Truth must prevail in the end."
But the more powerful enemies he had to face were among the so-called free-thinkers, embracing the atheists, materialists, agnostics, rationalists, and others of similar breed who opposed anything associated with God or religion. Thinking that they would easily crush his ancient faith by arguments drawn from Western philosophy and science, they organized a meeting in New York and invited the Swami to present his views.
"I shall never forget that memorable evening," wrote an American disciple, "when the Swami appeared single-handed to face the forces of materialism, arrayed in the heaviest armour of law, and reason, and logic, and common sense, of matter, and force, and heredity, and all the stock phrases calculated to awe and terrify the ignorant. Imagine their surprise when they found that, far from being intimidated by these big words, he proved himself a master in wielding their own weapons, and as familiar with the arguments of materialism as with those of Advaita philosophy. He showed them that their much vaunted Western science could not answer the most vita' questions of life and being, that their immutable laws, so much talked of, had no outside existence apart from the human mind, that the very idea of matter was a metaphysical con¬ception, and that it was much despised metaphysics upon which ultimately rested the very basis of their materialism. With an irresistible logic he demon-strated that their knowledge proved itself incorrect, not by comparison with that which was true, but by the very laws upon which it depended for its basis; that pure reason could not help admitting its own limitations and pointed to something beyond reason; and that rationalism, when carried to its last conse-qucnces, must ultimately land us at something which is above matter, above force, above sense, above thought, and even consciousness, and of which all these are but manifestations."
As a result of his explaining the 'imitations of science, a number of people from the group of free-thinkers attended the Swami's meeting the next day and listened to his uplifting utterances on God and religion.

What an uphill work it was for Swami Vivckananda to remove the ignorance, superstition, and perverted ideas about religion in general and Hinduism in particular! No wonder he sometimes felt depressed. In one of these moods he wrote from Detroit, on March 15, 1894, to the Hale sisters in Chicago:

But I do not know—I have become very sad in my heart since I am here. I do not know why. I am wearied of lecturing and all that nonsense. This mixing with hundreds of human animals, male and female, has disturbed me. I will tell you what is to my taste. I cannot write—cannot speak—but I can think deep, and when I am heated can speak fire. But it should be to a select few—a very select few. And let them carry and sow my ideas broadcast if they wifl—not I. It is only a just division of labour. The same man never succeeded in thinking and in casting his thoughts all around. Such thoughts are not worth a penny. . . . I am really not "cyclonic" at all—far from it. What I want is not here—nor can I longer bear this cyclonic atmosphere. Calm, cool, nice, deep, pene-trating, independent, searching thought—a few noble, pure mirrors which will reflect it back, catch it until all of them sound in unison. Let others throw it to the outside world if they will. This is the way to perfcction—to be perfect, to make perfect a few men and women. My idea of doing good is this—to evolve a few giants, and not to strew pearls to the swine and lose time, breath, and energy. . . . Well, I do not care forlec-turing any more. It is too disgusting to bring me to suit anybody's or any audience's fad.
Swami Vivekananda became sick of what he termed "the nonsense of public life and newspaper blazoning."

The Swami had sincere admirers and devotees among the Americans, who looked after his comforts, gave him money when he lacked it, and followed his instruction. He was particularly grateful to American women, and wrote many letters to his friends in India paying high praise to their virtues.
In one letter he wrote: "Nowhere in the world are women like those of this country. How pure, independent, self-relying, and kind-hearted! It is the women who are the life and soul of this country. All learning and culture are centred
in them."
In another letter: "[Americans] look with veneration upon women, who play
a most prominent part in their lives. Here this form of worship has attained its perfection—this is the long and short of it. I am almost at my wit's end to see the women of this country. They are Lakshmi, the Goddess of Fortune, in beauty, and Sarasvati, the Goddess of Learning, in virtues—they are the Divine Mother incarnate. If I can raise a thousand such Madonnas—incarna¬tions of the Divine Mother—in our country before I dic, I shall die in peace. Then only will our countrymen become worthy of their name."

Perhaps his admiration reached its highest pitch in a letter to the Mahrj of Khetri, which he wrote in 1894:
American women! A hundred lives would not be sufficient to pay my deep debt of gratitude to you! Last year I came to this country in summer, a wandering preacher of a far distant country, without name, fame, wealth, or learning to recommend me—friendless, helpless, almost in a state of destitution; and riiiirican women befriended me, gave me shelter and food, took me to their homes, and treated me as their own son, their own brother. They stood as my friends even when their own priests were trying to per¬suade them to give up the "dangerous heathen"—even when, day after day, their best friends had told them not to stand by this "unknown foreigner, maybe of dangcrous charactcr." But they are better judges of character and soul—for it is the pure mirror that catches the reflection.
And how many beautiful homes I have seen, how many mothers whose purity of character, whose unselfish love for their children, are beyond expression, how many daughters and pure maidens, "pure as thc icicle on Diana's temple"—and withal much culture, education, and spirituality in the highest sense! Is America, then, only full of wingless angels in the shape of women? There are good and bad everywhere, true—but a nation is not to be judged by its weaklings, called the wicked, for they are only the weeds which lag behind, but by the good, the noble, and the pure, who indicate the national life-current to be flowing clear and vigorous.
And how bitter the Swami felt when he remembered the sad plight of the women of India! He particularly recalled the tragic circumstances under which one of his own sisters had committed suicide. He often thought that the misery of India was largely due to the ill-treatment the Hindus meted out to their womenfolk. Part of the money earned by his lectures was sent to a foundation for Hindu widows at Baranagore. He also conceived the idea of sending to India women teachers from the West for the intellectual regeneration of Hindu women.

Swami Vivekananda showed great respect for the fundamentals of American culture. He studied the country's economic policy, industrial organizations, public instruction, and its museums and art galleries, and wrote to India en¬thusiastically about them. He praised highly the progress of science, hygiene, institutions, and social welfare work. He realized that such noble concepts as the divinity of the soul and the brotherhood of men were mere academic theories in present-day India, whereas America showed how to apply them in life. He fell indignant when he compared the generosity and liberality of the wealthy men of America in the cause of social service, with the apathy of the Indians as far as their own people were concerned.

"No religion on earth," he wrote angrily, "preaches the dignity of humanity in such a lofty strain as Hinduism, and no religion on earth treads upon the necks of the poor and the low in such a fashion as Hinduism. Religion is not at fault, but it is the Pharisees and Sadducees."
How poignant must have been his feelings when he remembered the iniquities of the caste-system! "India's doom was sealed," he wrote, "the very day they invented the word mlechcha8 and stopped from communion with others." When he saw in New York a millionaire woman sitting side by side in a tram- 

8 The non-Hindu, with whom all social intercourse is forbidden.
 
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car with a negress with a wash-basket on her lap, he was impressed with the democratic spirit of the Americans. He wanted in India "an organization that will teach the Hindus mutual help and appreciation" after the pattern of Western democracies.

Incessantly he wrote to his Indian devotees about the regeneration of the masses. In a letter dated 1894 he said:
Let each one of us pray, day and night, for the downtrodden millions in India, who are held fast by poverty, priestcraft, and tyranny—pray day and night for them. I care more to preach religion to them than to the high and the rich. I am no metaphysician, no philosopher, nay, no saint. But I am poor, I love the poor. . . . Who feels in India for the three hundred millions of men and women sunken for ever in poverty and igno¬rance? Where is the way out? Who feels for them? Let these people be your God—think of them, work for them, pray for them incessantly—the Lord will show you the way. Him I call a mahätm, a noble soul, whose heart bleeds for the poor; otherwise he is a durãtmã, a wicked soul. . . . So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them. . . . We are poor, my brothers, we are nobodies, but such have always been the instruments of the Most High.

 

Never did he forget, in the midst of the comforts and luxuries of America, even when he was borne on the wings of triumph from one city to another, the cause of the Indian masses, whose miseries he had witnessed while wander¬ing as an unknown monk from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin. The prosperity of the new continent only stirred up in his soul deeper commiseration for his own people. He saw with his own eyes what human efforts, intelligence, and earnestness could accomplish to banish from society poverty, superstition, squalor, disease, and other handicaps of human well-being. On August 20, 1893, he wrote to instil courage into the depressed hearts of his devotees in India:
Gird up your loins, my boys! I am called by the Lord for this. . . . The hope lies in you—in the meek, the lowly, but the faithful. Feel for the miserable and look up for help—it shall come. I have travelled twelve years with this load in my heart and this idea in my head. I have gone from door to door of the so-called "rich and great." With a bleeding heart I have crossed half the world to this strange land, seeking help. The Lord is great. I know He will help me. I may perish of cold and hunger in this land, but I bequeath to you young men this sympathy, this struggle for the poor, the ignorant, the oppressed. . . . Go down on your faces before Him and make a great sacrifice, the sacrifice of a whole life for them, for whom He comes from time to time, whom He loves above all—the poor, the lowly, the oppressed. Vow, then, to devote your whole lives to the cause of these three hundred millions, going down and down every day. Glory unto the Lord! We will succeed. Hundreds will fall in the struggle—hundreds will be ready to take it up. Faith—sympathy, fiery faith and fiery sympathy! Life is nothing, death is nothing—hunger nothing, cold nothing. Glory unto the Lord! March on, the Lord is our General. Do not look back to see who falls—forward—onward!
Swami Vivekananda was thoroughly convinced by his intimate knowledge of the Indian people that the life-current of the nation, far from being extinct, was only submerged under the dead weight of ignorance and poverty. India still produced great saints whose message of the Spirit was sorely needed by the Western world. But the precious jewels of spirituality discovered by them
 
76 Vivekananda
were hidden, in the absence of a jewel-box, in a heap of filth. The West had created the jewel-box, in the form of a healthy society, but it did not have the jewels. Further, it took him no long time to understand that a materialistic culture contained within it the seeds of its own destruction. Again and again he warned the West of its impending danger. The bright glow on the Western horizon might not be the harbinger of a new dawn; it might very well be the red flames of a huge funeral pyre. The Western world was caught in the maze of its incessant activity—in term inable movement without any goal. The hanker¬ing for material comforts, without a higher spiritual goal and a feeling of universal sympathy, might flare up among the nations of the West into jealousy and hatred, which in the end would bring about their own destruction.
Swami Vivekananda was a lover of humanity. Man is the highest manifesta¬tion of God, and this God was being crucified in different ways in the East and the West. Thus he had a double mission to perform in America. He wanted to obtain from the Americans money, scientific knowledge, and technical help for the regeneration of the Indian masses, and, in turn, to give to the Americans the knowledge of the Eternal Spirit to endow their material progress with significance. No false pride could prevent him from learning from America the many features of her social superiority; he also exhorted the Americans not to allow racial arrogance to prevent them from accepting the gift of spiritual¬ity from India. Through this policy of acceptance and mutual respect he dreamt of creating a healthy human society for the ultimate welfare of man's body and soul.
VARIOUS EXPERIENCES AS A TEACHER
The year following the Parliament of Religions the Swami devoted to address¬ing meetings in the vast area spreading from the Mississippi to the Atlantic. In Detroit he spent six wecks, first as a guest of Mrs. John Bagley, widow of the former Governor of Michigan, and then of Thomas W. Palmer, President of the World's Fair Commission, formerly a United States Senator and Amer¬ican Minister to Spain. Mrs. Bagilcy spoke of the Swami's presence at her house as a it continual bencdiction." It was in Detroit that Miss Greenstidel first heard him speak. She later became, under the name of Sister Christine, one of the most dcvoted disciples of the Swami and a collaborator of Sister Nivedita in her work in Calcutta for the educational advancement of Indian women.
After Detroit, he divided his time between Chicago, New York, and Boston, and during the summer of 1894 addressed, by invitation, several meetings of the "Humane Conference" held at Greenacre, Massachusetts. Christian Sci¬entists, spiritualists, faith-healers, and groups representing similar views partici¬pated in the Conference.
The Swami, in the course of a letter to the Hale sisters of Chicago, wrote on July 31, 1894, with his usual humour about the people who attended the meetings:
They have a lively time and sometimes all of them wear what you call your scientific dress the whole day. They have lectures almost every day. One Mr. Colville from Boston is here. He speaks every day, it is said, under spirit control. The editor of the Universal Truth from the top floor of Jimmy Mills has settled herself down here. She is conducting
 
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religious services and holding classes to heal all manner of diseases, and very soon I expect them to be giving eyes to the blind, etc., etc. After all, it is a queer gathering. They do not care much about social laws and are quite frce and happy.
There is a Mr. Wood of Boston here, who is one of the great lights of your scct. But he objects to belonging to the sect of Mrs. Vhir1pooL9 So he calls himself a mental healer of metaphysical, chemico, physicaLreligioso, what-not, etc.
Yesterday there was a tremendous cyclone which gave a good "treatment" to the tents. The big tent under which they held the lectures developed so much spirituality under the treatment that it entirety disappearcd from mortal gaze, and about two hundrcd chairs were dancing about the grounds under spiritual ecstasy. Mrs. Figs of Mills Company gives a class every morning, and Mrs. Mills is jumping all about the place. They are all in high spirits. I am especially glad for Cora, for she suffered a good deal last winter and a little hilarity would do her good. You would be astounded with the liberty they enjoy in the camps, but they are very good and pure peop'e—a little erratic, that is all.
Regarding his own work at Greenacre, the Swami wrote in the same letter:
The other night the camp people all went to steep under a pine tree under which I sit every morning i Ia India and talk to them. Of course I went with them and we had a nice night under the stars, steeping on the lap of Mother Earth, and I enjoyed every bit of it. I cannot describe to you that night's glories—after the year of brutal life that I have led, to steep on the ground, to meditate undcr the tree in the forest! The inn people are more or less well-to-do, and the camp people are healthy, young, sincere, and holy men and women. I teach them all ivoham, ivoharn—"I am Siva, I amSiva"—and they all repeat it, innocent and pure as they are, and brave beyond all bounds, and I am so happy and glorified.
Thank God for making me poor! Thank God for making these children in the tents poor! The dudes and dudines are in the hotel, but iron-bound ncrves, souls of triple steel, and spirits of fire are in the camp. If you had seen them yesterday, when the rain was falling in torrents and the cyclone was overturning everything—hanging on to their tent-strings to keep them from being blown off, and standing on the majesty of their souls, these brave ones—it would have done your hearts good. I would go a hundred miles to see the like of them. Lord bless them!
Never be anxious for me for a moment. I will be taken care of, and if not, I shall know my time has come—and pass out. . . . Now good dreams, good thoughts for you. You are good and noble. Instead of materializing the spirit, i.e. dragging the spiritual to the matcrial plane as these fellers do, convert matter into spirit—catch a glimpse at least, every day, of that world of infinite beauty and peace and purity, the spiritual, and try to live in it day and night. Seek not, touch not with your toes, anything which is uncanny. Let your souls ascend day and night like an unbroken string unto the feet of the Beloved, whose throne is in your own heart, and let the rest take care of them¬selves, i.e. the body and everything else. Life is an evanescent, floating dream; youth and beauty fade. Say day and night: "Thou art my fathcr, my mother, my husband, my love, my Lord, my God—I want nothing but Thee, nothing but Thee, nothing but Thee. Thou in me, I in Thee—I am Thee, Thou art me." Wealth gocs, beauty vanishes, life flies, powers fly—but the Lord abideth for ever, love abideth for ever. If there is glory in keeping the machine in good trim, it is more glorious to withhold the sou' from suffering with the body. That is the only demonstration of your being "not matter"—by 'etting matter atone.
Stick to God. Who cares what comes, in the body or anywhere? Through the terrors
"A reference to Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science.
 
78 Vivekananda
of evil, say, "My God, my Love!" Through the pangs of death, say, "My God, my Love!" Through all the evils under the sun, say: 'My God, my Love! Thou art here, I see Thee. Thou art with me, I feel Thee. I am Thine, take me. I am not the world's, but Thine—leave Thou not me." Do not go for glass beads, leaving the mine of dia¬monds. This life is a great chance. What! Scekest thou the pleasures of this world? He is the fountain of all bliss. Seek the highest, aim for the highest, and you shall reach the highest.
At Greenacre the Swami became a friend of Dr. Lewis G. Janes, Director of the School of Comparative Religions organized by the Greenacre Conference, and President of the Brooklyn Ethical Association. The following autumn he
lectured in Baltimore and Washington.
During the Swami's visit in New York he was the guest of friends, mostly rich ladies of the metropolitan city. He had not yet started any serious work there. Soon he began to feel a sort of restraint put upon his movements. Very few of his wealthy friends understood the true import of his message; they were interested in him as a novelty from India. Also to them he was the man of the hour. They wanted him to mix with only the exclusive society of "the right people." He chafed under their domination and one day cried: "iva! iva! Has it ever come to pass that a great work has been grown by the rich? It is brain and heart that create, and not purse." He wanted to break away from their power and devote himself to the training of some serious students in the spiritual life. He was fed up with public lectures; now he became eager to mould
silently the characters of individuals. He could no longer bear the yoke of money and all the botheration that came in its train. He would live simply and give freely, like the holy men of India. Soon an opportunity presented
itself.
Dr. Lewis Janes invited the Swami to give a series of lectures on the Hindu
religion before the Brooklyn Ethical Association. On the evening of December 311 1894, he gave his first lecture, and according to the report of the Brooklyn
Standard, the enthusiastic audience, consisting of doctors and lawyers and
judges and teachers, remained spellbound by his eloquent defence of the religion of India. They all acknowledged that Vivekananda was even greater than his
fame. At the end of the meeting they made an insistent demand for regular classes in Brooklyn, to which the Swami agreed. A series of class meetings was held and several public lectures were given at the Pouch Mansion, where the Ethical Association held its meetings. These lectures constituted the begin¬ning of the permanent work in America which the Swami secretly desired.
Soon after, several poor but earnest students rented for the Swami some unfurnished rooms in a poor section of New York City. He lived in one of them. An ordinary room on the second floor of the lodging-house was used for the lectures and classes. The Swami when conducting the meetings sat on the floor, while the ever more numerous auditors seated themselves as best they could, utilizing the marble-topped dresser, the arms of the sofa, and even the corner wash-stand. The door was left open and the overflow filled the hall and sat on the stairs. The Swami, like a typical religious teacher in India, felt himself in his own element. The students, forgetting all the inconveniences,
 
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hung upon every word uttered from the teacher's deep personal experiences or his wide range of knowledge.
The lectures, given every morning and several evenings a week, were free. The rent was paid by the voluntary subscriptions of the students, and the deficit was met by the Swami himself, through the money he earned by giving secular lectures on India. Soon the meeting-place had to be removed downstairs to occupy an entire parlour floor.
He began to instruct several chosen disciples in jnãna-yoga in order to clarify their intellects rcgarding the subtle truths of Vedinta, and also in rãja-yoga to teach them the science of self-control, concentration, and meditation. He was immensely happy with the result of his concentrated work. He enjoined upon these students to follow strict disciplines regarding food, choosing only the simplest. The necessity of chastity was emphasized, and they were warned against psychic and occultpowers. At the same time he broadened their intel¬lectual horizon through the teachings of Vedãntic universality. Daily he medi¬tated with the serious students. Often he would lose all bodily consciousness and, like ri Ramakrishna, have to be brought back to the knowledge of the world through the repctition of certain holy words that he had taught his disciples.
It was sometime about June 1895 when Swami Vivckananda finished writing his famous book Rja-Yoga, which attractcd the attention of the Harvard philosopher \Vifliarn James and was later to rouse the enthusiasm of To'stoy. The book is a translation of Patanjalli's Yoga aphorisms, the Swami adding his own explanations; the introductory chapters written by him are especially illuminating. Patanjab expounded, through these aphorisms, the philosophy of Yoga, the main purpose of which is to show the way of the soul's attaining freedom from the bondage of matter. Various methods of concentration are discussed. The book well served two purposes. First, the Swami demonstrated that religious experiences could stand on the same footing as scientific truths, being based on experimentation, observation, and verification. Therefore genu¬ine spiritual experiences must not be dogmatically discarded as tacking rational evidence. Secondly, the Swami explained lucidly various disciplines of concen¬tration, with the warning, however, that they should not be pursued without the help of a qualified teacher.
Miss S. Ellen Waldo of Brooklyn, a disciple of the Swami, was his amanu¬ensis. She thus described the manner in which he dictated the book:
"In delivering his commentaries on the aphorisms, he would leave me waiting while he entered into deep states of meditation or self-contemplation, to emerge therefrom with some luminous interpretation. I had always to keep the pen dipped in the ink. He might be absorbed for long periods of time, and then suddenly his silence would be broken by some eager expression or some long, deliberate teaching."

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71 

VEDANTA  IN  AMERICA 

After  the  meetings  of  the  Parliament  of  Religions  were  concluded,  Swami 
Vivekananda,  as  already  noted,  undertook  a  series  of  apostolic  campaigns  in  order 
to  sow  the  seed  of  the  Vedantic  truths  in  the  ready  soil  of  America.  Soon  he 
discovered  that  the  lecture  bureau  was  exploiting  him.  Further,  he  did  not  like 
its  method  of  advertisement.  He  was  treated  as  if  he  were  the  chief  attraction 
of  a  circus.  The  prospectus  included  his  portrait,  with  the  inscription,  pro¬ 
claiming  his  cardinal  virtues:  “An  Orator  by  Divine  Right;  a  Model  Repre¬ 
sentative  of  his  Race;  a  Perfect  Master  of  the  English  Language;  the  Sensation 
of  the  World’s  Fair  Parliament.”  It  also  described  his  physical  bearing,  his 
height,  the  colour  of  his  skin,  and  his  clothing.  The  Swami  felt  disgusted  at 
being  treated  like  a  patent  medicine  or  an  elephant  in  a  show.  So  he  severed 
his  relationship  with  the  bureau  and  arranged  his  own  lectures  himself.  He 
accepted  invitations  from  churches,  clubs,  and  private  gatherings,  and  travelled 
extensively  through  the  Eastern  and  Midwestern  states  of  America,  delivering 
twelve  to  fourteen  or  more  lectures  a  week. 

People  came  in  hundreds  and  in  thousands.  And  what  an  assorted  audience 
he  had  to  face!  There  came  to  his  meetings  professors  from  universities,  ladies 
of  fine  breeding,  seekers  of  truth,  and  devotees  of  God  with  childlike  faith. 
But  mixed  with  these  were  charlatans,  curiosity-seekers,  idlers,  and  vagabonds. 
It  is  not  true  that  he  met  everywhere  with  favourable  conditions.  Leon  Lands- 
berg,  one  of  the  Swami’s  American  disciples,  thus  described  Vivekananda’s 
tribulations  of  those  days: 

The  Americans  are  a  receptive  nation.  That  is  why  the  country  is  a  hotbed  of  all  kinds 
of  religious  and  irreligious  monstrosities.  There  is  no  theory  so  absurd,  no  doctrine  so 


72 


Vivekananda 


irrational,  no  claim  so  extravagant,  no  fraud  so  transparent,  but  can  find  their  numerous 
believers  and  a  ready  market.  To  satisfy  this  craving,  to  feed  the  credulity  of  the  people, 
hundreds  of  societies  and  sects  are  born  for  the  salvation  of  the  world,  and  to  enable  the 
prophets  to  pocket  $25  to  $100  initiation  fees.  Hobgoblins,  spooks,  mahatmas,  and  new 
prophets  were  rising  every  day.  In  this  bedlam  of  religious  cranks,  the  Swami  appeared 
to  teach  the  lofty  religion  of  the  Vedas,  the  profound  philosophy  of  Vedanta,  the  sub¬ 
lime  wisdom  of  the  ancient  rishis.  The  most  unfavourable  environment  for  such  a  task! 

The  Swami  met  with  all  kinds  of  obstacles.  The  opposition  of  fanatical 
Christian  missionaries  was,  of  course,  one  of  these.  They  promised  him  help  if 
he  only  would  preach  their  brand  of  Christianity.  When  the  Swami  refused, 
they  circulated  all  sorts  of  filthy  stories  about  him,  and  even  succeeded  in  per¬ 
suading  some  of  the  Americans  who  had  previously  invited  him  to  be  their 
guest,  to  cancel  the  invitations.  But  Vivekananda  continued  to  preach  the 
religion  of  love,  renunciation,  and  truth  as  taught  by  Christ,  and  to  show  him 
the  highest  veneration  as  a  Saviour  of  mankind.  How  significant  were  his  words: 
“It  is  well  to  be  born  in  a  church,  but  it  is  terrible  to  die  there!”  Needless  to 
say,  he  meant  by  the  word  church  all  organized  religious  institutions.  How  like 
a  thunderbolt  the  words  fell  upon  the  ears  of  his  audience  when  one  day  he 
exclaimed:  “Christ,  Buddha,  and  Krishna  are  but  waves  in  the  Ocean  of  Infinite 
Consciousness  that  I  am!” 

Then  there  were  the  leaders  of  the  cranky,  selfish,  and  fraudulent  organiza¬ 
tions,  who  tried  to  induce  the  Swami  to  embrace  their  cause,  first  by  promises 
of  support,  and  then  by  threats  of  injuring  him  if  he  refused  to  ally  himself 
with  them.  But  he  could  be  neither  bought  nor  frightened — “the  sickle 
had  hit  on  a  stone,”  as  the  Polish  proverb  says.  To  all  these  propositions  his 
only  answer  was:  “I  stand  for  Truth.  Truth  will  never  ally  itself  with  falsehood. 
Even  if  all  the  world  should  be  against  me,  Truth  must  prevail  in  the  end.” 

But  the  more  powerful  enemies  he  had  to  face  were  among  the  so-called 
free-thinkers,  embracing  the  atheists,  materialists,  agnostics,  rationalists,  and 
others  of  similar  breed  who  opposed  anything  associated  with  God  or  religion. 
Thinking  that  they  would  easily  crush  his  ancient  faith  by  arguments  drawn 
from  Western  philosophy  and  science,  they  organized  a  meeting  in  New  York 
and  invited  the  Swami  to  present  his  views. 

“I  shall  never  forget  that  memorable  evening,”  wrote  an  American  disciple, 
“when  the  Swami  appeared  single-handed  to  face  the  forces  of  materialism, 
arrayed  in  the  heaviest  armour  of  law,  and  reason,  and  logic,  and  common 
sense,  of  matter,  and  force,  and  heredity,  and  all  the  stock  phrases  calculated 
to  awe  and  terrify  the  ignorant.  Imagine  their  surprise  when  they  found  that, 
far  from  being  intimidated  by  these  big  words,  he  proved  himself  a  master  in 
wielding  their  own  weapons,  and  as  familiar  with  the  arguments  of  materialism 
as  with  those  of  Advaita  philosophy.  He  showed  them  that  their  much  vaunted 
Western  science  could  not  answer  the  most  vital  questions  of  life  and  being, 
that  their  immutable  laws,  so  much  talked  of,  had  no  outside  existence  apart 
from  the  human  mind,  that  the  very  idea  of  matter  was  a  metaphysical  con¬ 
ception,  and  that  it  was  much  despised  metaphysics  upon  which  ultimately 
rested  the  very  basis  of  their  materialism.  With  an  irresistible  logic  he  demon¬ 
strated  that  their  knowledge  proved  itself  incorrect,  not  by  comparison  with 


Vivekananda 


73 


that  which  was  true,  but  by  the  very  laws  upon  which  it  depended  for  its  basis; 
that  pure  reason  could  not  help  admitting  its  own  limitations  and  pointed  to 
something  beyond  reason;  and  that  rationalism,  when  carried  to  its  last  conse¬ 
quences,  must  ultimately  land  us  at  something  which  is  above  matter,  above 
force,  above  sense,  above  thought,  and  even  consciousness,  and  of  which  all 
these  are  but  manifestations/' 

As  a  result  of  his  explaining  the  limitations  of  science,  a  number  of  people 
from  the  group  of  free-thinkers  attended  the  Swami’s  meeting  the  next  day  and 
listened  to  his  uplifting  utterances  on  God  and  religion. 

What  an  uphill  work  it  was  for  Swami  Vivekananda  to  remove  the  ignorance, 
superstition,  and  perverted  ideas  about  religion  in  general  and  Hinduism  in 
particular!  No  wonder  he  sometimes  felt  depressed.  In  one  of  these  moods  he 
wrote  from  Detroit,  on  March  15,  1894,  to  the  Hale  sisters  in  Chicago: 

But  I  do  not  know — I  have  become  very  sad  in  my  heart  since  I  am  here.  I  do  not 
know  why.  I  am  wearied  of  lecturing  and  all  that  nonsense.  This  mixing  with  hundreds 
of  human  animals,  male  and  female,  has  disturbed  me.  I  will  tell  you  what  is  to  my 
taste.  I  cannot  write — cannot  speak — but  I  can  think  deep,  and  when  I  am  heated  can 
speak  fire.  But  it  should  be  to  a  select  few — a  very  select  few.  And  let  them  carry  and 
sow  my  ideas  broadcast  if  they  will — not  I.  It  is  only  a  just  division  of  labour.  The  same 
man  never  succeeded  in  thinking  and  in  casting  his  thoughts  all  around.  Such  thoughts 
are  not  worth  a  penny.  ...  I  am  really  not  “cyclonic’'  at  all — far  from  it.  What  I  want  is 
not  here — nor  can  I  longer  bear  this  cyclonic  atmosphere.  Calm,  cool,  nice,  deep,  pene¬ 
trating,  independent,  searching  thought — a  few  noble,  pure  mirrors  which  will  reflect  it 
back,  catch  it  until  all  of  them  sound  in  unison.  Let  others  throw  it  to  the  outside  world 
if  they  will.  This  is  the  way  to  perfection — to  be  perfect,  to  make  perfect  a  few  men 
and  women.  My  idea  of  doing  good  is  this — to  evolve  a  few  giants,  and  not  to  strew 
pearls  to  the  swine  and  lose  time,  breath,  and  energy.  .  .  .  Well,  I  do  not  care  for  lec¬ 
turing  any  more.  It  is  too  disgusting  to  bring  me  to  suit  anybody’s  or  any  audience's  fad. 

Swami  Vivekananda  became  sick  of  what  he  termed  “the  nonsense  of  public 
life  and  newspaper  blazoning.” 

The  Swami  had  sincere  admirers  and  devotees  among  the  Americans,  who 
looked  after  his  comforts,  gave  him  money  when  he  lacked  it,  and  followed  his 
instruction.  He  was  particularly  grateful  to  American  women,  and  wrote  many 
letters  to  his  friends  in  India  paying  high  praise  to  their  virtues. 

In  one  letter  he  wrote:  “Nowhere  in  the  world  are  women  like  those  of  this 
country.  How  pure,  independent,  self-relying,  and  kind-hearted!  It  is  the  women 
who  are  the  life  and  soul  of  this  country.  All  learning  and  culture  are  centred 
in  them.” 

In  another  letter:  “[Americans]  look  with  veneration  upon  women,  who  play 
a  most  prominent  part  in  their  lives.  Here  this  form  of  worship  has  attained  its 
perfection — this  is  the  long  and  short  of  it.  I  am  almost  at  my  wit’s  end  to 
see  the  women  of  this  country.  They  are  Lakshmi,  the  Goddess  of  Fortune, 
in  beauty,  and  Sarasvati,  the  Goddess  of  Learning,  in  virtues — they  are  the 
Divine  Mother  incarnate.  If  I  can  raise  a  thousand  such  Madonnas — incarna¬ 
tions  of  the  Divine  Mother — in  our  country  before  I  die,  I  shall  die  in  peace. 
Then  only  will  our  countrymen  become  worthy  of  their  name.” 


74 


Vivekananda 


Perhaps  his  admiration  reached  its  highest  pitch  in  a  letter  to  the  Maharaja 
of  Khetri,  which  he  wrote  in  1894: 

American  women!  A  hundred  lives  would  not  be  sufficient  to  pay  my  deep  debt  of 
gratitude  to  you!  Last  year  I  came  to  this  country  in  summer,  a  wandering  preacher  of 
a  far  distant  country,  without  name,  fame,  wealth,  or  learning  to  recommend  me — 
friendless,  helpless,  almost  in  a  state  of  destitution;  and  zvmcrican  women  befriended  me, 
gave  me  shelter  and  food,  took  me  to  their  homes,  and  treated  me  as  their  own  son,  their 
own  brother.  They  stood  as  my  friends  even  when  their  own  priests  were  trying  to  per¬ 
suade  them  to  give  up  the  “dangerous  heathen” — even  when,  day  after  day,  their  best 
friends  had  told  them  not  to  stand  by  this  “unknown  foreigner,  maybe  of  dangerous 
character.”  But  they  are  better  judges  of  character  and  soul — for  it  is  the  pure  mirror 
that  catches  the  reflection. 

And  how  many  beautiful  homes  I  have  seen,  how  many  mothers  whose  purity  of 
character,  whose  unselfish  love  for  their  children,  are  beyond  expression,  how  many 
daughters  and  pure  maidens,  “pure  as  the  icicle  on  Diana’s  temple” — and  withal  much 
culture,  education,  and  spirituality  in  the  highest  sense!  Is  America,  then,  only  full  of 
wingless  angels  in  the  shape  of  women?  There  are  good  and  bad  everywhere,  true — but 
a  nation  is  not  to  be  judged  by  its  weaklings,  called  the  wicked,  for  they  are  only  the 
weeds  which  lag  behind,  but  by  the  good,  the  noble,  and  the  pure,  who  indicate  the 
national  life-current  to  be  flowing  clear  and  vigorous. 

And  how  bitter  the  Swami  felt  when  he  remembered  the  sad  plight  of  the 
women  of  India!  He  particularly  recalled  the  tragic  circumstances  under  which 
one  of  his  own  sisters  had  committed  suicide.  He  often  thought  that  the  misery 
of  India  was  largely  due  to  the  ill-treatment  the  Hindus  meted  out  to  their 
womenfolk.  Part  of  the  money  earned  by  his  lectures  was  sent  to  a  foundation 
for  Hindu  widows  at  Baranagore.  He  also  conceived  the  idea  of  sending  to 
India  women  teachers  from  the  West  for  the  intellectual  regeneration  of  Hindu 
women. 

Swami  Vivekananda  showed  great  respect  for  the  fundamentals  of  American 
culture.  He  studied  the  country’s  economic  policy,  industrial  organizations, 
public  instruction,  and  its  museums  and  art  galleries,  and  wrote  to  India  en¬ 
thusiastically  about  them.  He  praised  highly  the  progress  of  science,  hygiene, 
institutions,  and  social  welfare  work.  He  realized  that  such  noble  concepts  as  the 
divinity  of  the  soul  and  the  brotherhood  of  men  were  mere  academic  theories  in 
present-day  India,  whereas  America  showed  how  to  apply  them  in  life.  He  felt 
indignant  when  he  compared  the  generosity  and  liberality  of  the  wealthy  men  of 
America  in  the  cause  of  social  service,  with  the  apathy  of  the  Indians  as  far  as 
their  own  people  were  concerned. 

“No  religion  on  earth,”  he  wrote  angrily,  “preaches  the  dignity  of  humanity 
in  such  a  lofty  strain  as  Hinduism,  and  no  religion  on  earth  treads  upon  the 
necks  of  the  poor  and  the  low  in  such  a  fashion  as  Hinduism.  Religion  is  not 
at  fault,  but  it  is  the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees.” 

How  poignant  must  have  been  his  feelings  when  he  remembered  the  iniqui¬ 
ties  of  the  caste-system!  “India’s  doom  was  sealed,”  he  wrote,  “the  very  day 
they  invented  the  word  mlechcha 8  and  stopped  from  communion  with  others.” 
When  he  saw  in  New  York  a  millionaire  woman  sitting  side  by  side  in  a  tram- 

8  The  non-Hindu,  with  whom  all  social  intercourse  is  forbidden. 


Vivekananda 


75 


car  with  a  negress  with  a  wash-basket  on  her  lap,  he  was  impressed  with  the 
democratic  spirit  of  the  Americans.  He  wanted  in  India  “an  organization  that 
will  teach  the  Hindus  mutual  help  and  appreciation”  after  the  pattern  of 
Western  democracies. 

Incessantly  he  wrote  to  his  Indian  devotees  about  the  regeneration  of  the 
masses.  In  a  letter  dated  1894  he  said: 

Let  each  one  of  us  pray,  day  and  night,  for  the  downtrodden  millions  in  India,  who 
are  held  fast  by  poverty,  priestcraft,  and  tyranny — pray  day  and  night  for  them.  I  care 
more  to  preach  religion  to  them  than  to  the  high  and  the  rich.  I  am  no  metaphysician, 
no  philosopher,  nay,  no  saint.  But  I  am  poor,  I  love  the  poor.  .  .  .  Who  feels  in  India 
for  the  three  hundred  millions  of  men  and  women  sunken  for  ever  in  poverty  and  igno¬ 
rance?  Where  is  the  way  out?  Who  feels  for  them?  Let  these  people  be  your  God — 
think  of  them,  work  for  them,  pray  for  them  incessantly — the  Lord  will  show  you  the 
way.  Him  I  call  a  mahatma,  a  noble  soul,  whose  heart  bleeds  for  the  poor;  otherwise  he 
is  a  duratma,  a  wicked  soul.  ...  So  long  as  the  millions  live  in  hunger  and  ignorance, 
I  hold  every  man  a  traitor  who,  having  been  educated  at  their  expense,  pays  not  the  least 
heed  to  them.  .  .  .  We  are  poor,  my  brothers,  we  are  nobodies,  but  such  have  always 
been  the  instruments  of  the  Most  High. 

Never  did  he  forget,  in  the  midst  of  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  America, 
even  when  he  was  borne  on  the  wings  of  triumph  from  one  city  to  another, 
the  cause  of  the  Indian  masses,  whose  miseries  he  had  witnessed  while  wander¬ 
ing  as  an  unknown  monk  from  the  Himalayas  to  Cape  Comorin.  The  prosperity 
of  the  new  continent  only  stirred  up  in  his  soul  deeper  commiseration  for  his 
own  people.  He  saw  with  his  own  eyes  what  human  efforts,  intelligence,  and 
earnestness  could  accomplish  to  banish  from  society  poverty,  superstition, 
squalor,  disease,  and  other  handicaps  of  human  well-being.  On  August  20,  1893, 
he  wrote  to  instil  courage  into  the  depressed  hearts  of  his  devotees  in  India: 

Gird  up  your  loins,  my  boys!  I  am  called  by  the  Lord  for  this.  .  .  .  The  hope  lies  in 
you — in  the  meek,  the  lowly,  but  the  faithful.  Feel  for  the  miserable  and  look  up  for 
help — it  shall  come.  I  have  travelled  twelve  years  with  this  load  in  my  heart  and  this 
idea  in  my  head.  I  have  gone  from  door  to  door  of  the  so-called  “rich  and  great.”  With 
a  bleeding  heart  I  have  crossed  half  the  world  to  this  strange  land,  seeking  help.  The 
Lord  is  great.  I  know  He  will  help  me.  I  may  perish  of  cold  and  hunger  in  this  land,  but 
I  bequeath  to  you  young  men  this  sympathy,  this  struggle  for  the  poor,  the  ignorant, 
the  oppressed.  .  .  .  Go  down  on  your  faces  before  Him  and  make  a  great  sacrifice,  the 
sacrifice  of  a  whole  life  for  them,  for  whom  He  comes  from  time  to  time,  whom  He 
loves  above  all — the  poor,  the  lowly,  the  oppressed.  Vow,  then,  to  devote  your  whole 
lives  to  the  cause  of  these  three  hundred  millions,  going  down  and  down  every  day. 
Glory  unto  the  Lord!  We  will  succeed.  Hundreds  will  fall  in  the  struggle — hundreds  will 
be  ready  to  take  it  up.  Faith — sympathy,  fiery  faith  and  fiery  sympathy!  Life  is  nothing, 
death  is  nothing — hunger  nothing,  cold  nothing.  Glory  unto  the  Lord!  March  on,  the 
Lord  is  our  General.  Do  not  look  back  to  see  who  falls — forward — onward! 

Swami  Vivekananda  was  thoroughly  convinced  by  his  intimate  knowledge  of 
the  Indian  people  that  the  life-current  of  the  nation,  far  from  being  extinct, 
was  only  submerged  under  the  dead  weight  of  ignorance  and  poverty.  India 
still  produced  great  saints  whose  message  of  the  Spirit  was  sorely  needed  by 
the  Western  world.  But  the  precious  jewels  of  spirituality  discovered  by  them 


76 


Vivekananda 


were  hidden,  in  the  absence  of  a  jewel-box,  in  a  heap  of  filth.  The  West  had 
created  the  jewel-box,  in  the  form  of  a  healthy  society,  but  it  did  not  have  the 
jewels.  Further,  it  took  him  no  long  time  to  understand  that  a  materialistic 
culture  contained  within  it  the  seeds  of  its  own  destruction.  Again  and  again 
he  warned  the  West  of  its  impending  danger.  The  bright  glow  on  the  Western 
horizon  might  not  be  the  harbinger  of  a  new  dawn;  it  might  very  well  be  the 
red  flames  of  a  huge  funeral  pyre.  The  Western  world  was  caught  in  the  maze 
of  its  incessant  activity — interminable  movement  without  any  goal.  The  hanker¬ 
ing  for  material  comforts,  without  a  higher  spiritual  goal  and  a  feeling  of 
universal  sympathy,  might  flare  up  among  the  nations  of  the  West  into 
jealousy  and  hatred,  which  in  the  end  would  bring  about  their  own  destruction. 

Swami  Vivekananda  was  a  lover  of  humanity.  Man  is  the  highest  manifesta¬ 
tion  of  God,  and  this  God  was  being  crucified  in  different  ways  in  the  East 
and  the  West.  Thus  he  had  a  double  mission  to  perform  in  America.  He  wanted 
to  obtain  from  the  Americans  money,  scientific  knowledge,  and  technical  help 
for  the  regeneration  of  the  Indian  masses,  and,  in  turn,  to  give  to  the  Americans 
the  knowledge  of  the  Eternal  Spirit  to  endow  their  material  progress  with 
significance.  No  false  pride  could  prevent  him  from  learning  from  America 
the  many  features  of  her  social  superiority;  he  also  exhorted  the  Americans 
not  to  allow  racial  arrogance  to  prevent  them  from  accepting  the  gift  of  spiritual¬ 
ity  from  India.  Through  this  policy  of  acceptance  and  mutual  respect  he  dreamt 
of  creating  a  healthy  human  society  for  the  ultimate  welfare  of  man’s  body 
and  soul. 


VARIOUS  EXPERIENCES  AS  A  TEACHER 

The  year  following  the  Parliament  of  Religions  the  Swami  devoted  to  address¬ 
ing  meetings  in  the  vast  area  spreading  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Atlantic. 
In  Detroit  he  spent  six  weeks,  first  as  a  guest  of  Mrs.  John  Bagley,  widow  of 
the  former  Governor  of  Michigan,  and  then  of  Thomas  W.  Palmer,  President 
of  the  World’s  Fair  Commission,  formerly  a  United  States  Senator  and  Amer¬ 
ican  Minister  to  Spain.  Mrs.  Bagley  spoke  of  the  Swami’s  presence  at  her  house 
as  a  “continual  benediction.”  It  was  in  Detroit  that  Miss  Greenstidel  first  heard 
him  speak.  She  later  became,  under  the  name  of  Sister  Christine,  one  of  the 
most  devoted  disciples  of  the  Swami  and  a  collaborator  of  Sister  Nivedita  in 
her  work  in  Calcutta  for  the  educational  advancement  of  Indian  women. 

After  Detroit,  he  divided  his  time  between  Chicago,  New  York,  and  Boston, 
and  during  the  summer  of  1894  addressed,  by  invitation,  several  meetings  of 
the  “Humane  Conference”  held  at  Greenacre,  Massachusetts.  Christian  Sci¬ 
entists,  spiritualists,  faith-healers,  and  groups  representing  similar  views  partici¬ 
pated  in  the  Conference. 

The  Swami,  in  the  course  of  a  letter  to  the  Hale  sisters  of  Chicago,  wrote 
on  July  31,  1894,  with  his  usual  humour  about  the  people  who  attended  the 
meetings: 

They  have  a  lively  time  and  sometimes  all  of  them  wear  what  you  call  your  scientific 
dress  the  whole  day.  They  have  lectures  almost  every  day.  One  Mr.  Colville  from  Boston 
is  here.  He  speaks  every  day,  it  is  said,  under  spirit  control.  The  editor  of  the  Universal 
Truth  from  the  top  floor  of  Jimmy  Mills  has  settled  herself  down  here.  She  is  conducting 


Vivekananda 


77 


religious  services  and  holding  classes  to  heal  all  manner  of  diseases,  and  very  soon  I  expect 
them  to  be  giving  eyes  to  the  blind,  etc.,  etc.  After  all,  it  is  a  queer  gathering.  They  do  not 
care  much  about  social  laws  and  are  quite  free  and  happy.  .  .  . 

There  is  a  Mr.  Wood  of  Boston  here,  who  is  one  of  the  great  lights  of  your  sect.  But 
he  objects  to  belonging  to  the  sect  of  Mrs.  Whirlpool.9  So  he  calls  himself  a  mental 
healer  of  metaphysical,  chemico,  physical-religioso,  what-not,  etc. 

Yesterday  there  was  a  tremendous  cyclone  which  gave  a  good  “treatment”  to  the  tents. 
The  big  tent  under  which  they  held  the  lectures  developed  so  much  spirituality  under 
the  treatment  that  it  entirely  disappeared  from  mortal  gaze,  and  about  two  hundred 
chairs  were  dancing  about  the  grounds  under  spiritual  ecstasy.  Mrs.  Figs  of  Mills 
Company  gives  a  class  every  morning,  and  Mrs.  Mills  is  jumping  all  about  the  place. 
They  are  all  in  high  spirits.  I  am  especially  glad  for  Cora,  for  she  suffered  a  good  deal 
last  winter  and  a  little  hilarity  would  do  her  good.  You  would  be  astounded  with  the 
liberty  they  enjoy  in  the  camps,  but  they  are  very  good  and  pure  people — a  little  erratic, 
that  is  all. 

Regarding  his  own  work  at  Greenacre,  the  Swami  wrote  in  the  same  letter: 

The  other  night  the  camp  people  all  went  to  sleep  under  a  pine  tree  under  which  I 
sit  every  morning  a  la  India  and  talk  to  them.  Of  course  I  went  with  them  and  we  had 
a  nice  night  under  the  stars,  sleeping  on  the  lap  of  Mother  Earth,  and  I  enjoyed  every 
bit  of  it.  I  cannot  describe  to  you  that  night’s  glories — after  the  year  of  brutal  life  that 
I  have  led,  to  sleep  on  the  ground,  to  meditate  under  the  tree  in  the  forest!  The  inn 
people  are  more  or  less  well-to-do,  and  the  camp  people  are  healthy,  young,  sincere,  and 
holy  men  and  women.  I  teach  them  all  Sivoham,  Sivoham — “I  am  Siva,  I  am  Siva” — 
and  they  all  repeat  it,  innocent  and  pure  as  they  are,  and  brave  beyond  all  bounds,  and 
I  am  so  happy  and  glorified. 

Thank  God  for  making  me  poor!  Thank  God  for  making  these  children  in  the  tents 
poor!  The  dudes  and  dudines  are  in  the  hotel,  but  iron-bound  nerves,  souls  of  triple 
steel,  and  spirits  of  fire  are  in  the  camp.  If  you  had  seen  them  yesterday,  when  the  rain 
was  falling  in  torrents  and  the  cyclone  was  overturning  everything — hanging  on  to  their 
tent-strings  to  keep  them  from  being  blown  off,  and  standing  on  the  majesty  of  their 
souls,  these  brave  ones — it  would  have  done  your  hearts  good.  I  would  go  a  hundred 
miles  to  see  the  like  of  them.  Lord  bless  them!  .  .  . 

Never  be  anxious  for  me  for  a  moment.  I  will  be  taken  care  of,  and  if  not,  I  shall 
know  my  time  has  come — and  pass  out.  .  .  .  Now  good  dreams,  good  thoughts  for  you. 
You  are  good  and  noble.  Instead  of  materializing  the  spirit,  i.e.  dragging  the  spiritual  to 
the  material  plane  as  these  fellers  do,  convert  matter  into  spirit — catch  a  glimpse  at 
least,  every  day,  of  that  world  of  infinite  beauty  and  peace  and  purity,  the  spiritual, 
and  try  to  live  in  it  day  and  night.  Seek  not,  touch  not  with  your  toes,  anything  which 
is  uncanny.  Let  your  souls  ascend  day  and  night  like  an  unbroken  string  unto  the  feet 
of  the  Beloved,  whose  throne  is  in  your  own  heart,  and  let  the  rest  take  care  of  them¬ 
selves,  i.e.  the  body  and  everything  else.  Life  is  an  evanescent,  floating  dream;  youth 
and  beauty  fade.  Say  day  and  night:  “Thou  art  my  father,  my  mother,  my  husband, 
my  love,  my  Lord,  my  God — I  want  nothing  but  Thee,  nothing  but  Thee,  nothing  but 
Thee.  Thou  in  me,  I  in  Thee — I  am  Thee,  Thou  art  me.”  Wealth  goes,  beauty  vanishes, 
life  flies,  powers  fly — but  the  Lord  abideth  for  ever,  love  abideth  for  ever.  If  there  is  glory 
in  keeping  the  machine  in  good  trim,  it  is  more  glorious  to  withhold  the  soul  from 
suffering  with  the  body.  That  is  the  only  demonstration  of  your  being  “not  matter” — 
by  letting  matter  alone. 

Stick  to  God.  Who  cares  what  comes,  in  the  body  or  anywhere?  Through  the  terrors 

9  A  reference  to  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  Eddy,  the  founder  of  Christian  Science. 


78 


Vivekananda 


of  evil,  say,  "My  God,  my  Love!”  Through  the  pangs  of  death,  say,  "My  God,  my 
Love!”  Through  all  the  evils  under  the  sun,  say:  "My  God,  my  Love!  Thou  art  here, 

I  see  Thee.  Thou  art  with  me,  I  feel  Thee.  I  am  Thine,  take  me.  I  am  not  the  world  s, 
but  Thine — leave  Thou  not  me.”  Do  not  go  for  glass  beads,  leaving  the  mine  of  dia¬ 
monds.  This  life  is  a  great  chance.  What!  Seekest  thou  the  pleasures  of  this  world?  He 
is  the  fountain  of  all  bliss.  Seek  the  highest,  aim  for  the  highest,  and  you  shall  reach 
the  highest. 

At  Greenacre  the  Swami  became  a  friend  of  Dr.  Lewis  G.  Janes,  Director  of 
the  School  of  Comparative  Religions  organized  by  the  Greenacre  Conference, 
and  President  of  the  Brooklyn  Ethical  Association.  The  following  autumn  he 
lectured  in  Baltimore  and  Washington. 

During  the  Swami’s  visit  in  New  York  he  was  the  guest  of  friends,  mostly  rich 
ladies  of  the  metropolitan  city.  Lie  had  not  yet  started  any  serious  work  there. 
Soon  he  began  to  feel  a  sort  of  restraint  put  upon  his  movements.  Very  few 
of  his  wealthy  friends  understood  the  true  import  of  his  message;  they  were 
interested  in  him  as  a  novelty  from  India.  Also  to  them  he  was  the  man  of  the 
hour.  They  wanted  him  to  mix  with  only  the  exclusive  society  of  “the  right 
people.”  He  chafed  under  their  domination  and  one  day  cried:  “Siva!  Siva! 
Has  it  ever  come  to  pass  that  a  great  work  has  been  grown  by  the  rich?  It 
is  brain  and  heart  that  create,  and  not  purse.”  He  wanted  to  break  away  from 
their  power  and  devote  himself  to  the  training  of  some  serious  students  in  the 
spiritual  life.  He  was  fed  up  with  public  lectures;  now  he  became  eager  to  mould 
silently  the  characters  of  individuals.  He  could  no  longer  bear  the  yoke  of 
money  and  all  the  botheration  that  came  in  its  train.  He  would  live  simply 
and  give  freely,  like  the  holy  men  of  India.  Soon  an  opportunity  presented 
itself. 

Dr.  Lewis  Janes  invited  the  Swami  to  give  a  series  of  lectures  on  the  Hindu 
religion  before  the  Brooklyn  Ethical  Association.  On  the  evening  of  December 
31,  1894,  he  gave  his  first  lecture,  and  according  to  the  report  of  the  Brooklyn 
Standard ,  the  enthusiastic  audience,  consisting  of  doctors  and  lawyers  and 
judges  and  teachers,  remained  spellbound  by  his  eloquent  defence  of  the  religion 
of  India.  They  all  acknowledged  that  Vivekananda  was  even  greater  than  his 
fame.  At  the  end  of  the  meeting  they  made  an  insistent  demand  for  regular 
classes  in  Brooklyn,  to  which  the  Swami  agreed.  A  series  of  class  meetings 
was  held  and  several  public  lectures  were  given  at  the  Pouch  Mansion,  where 
the  Ethical  Association  held  its  meetings.  These  lectures  constituted  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  the  permanent  work  in  America  which  the  Swami  secretly  desired. 

Soon  after,  several  poor  but  earnest  students  rented  for  the  Swami  some 
unfurnished  rooms  in  a  poor  section  of  New  York  City.  He  lived  in  one  of 
them.  An  ordinary  room  on  the  second  floor  of  the  lodging-house  was  used 
for  the  lectures  and  classes.  The  Swami  when  conducting  the  meetings  sat 
on  the  floor,  while  the  ever  more  numerous  auditors  seated  themselves  as  best 
they  could,  utilizing  the  marble-topped  dresser,  the  arms  of  the  sofa,  and  even 
the  corner  wash-stand.  The  door  was  left  open  and  the  overflow  filled  the  hall 
and  sat  on  the  stairs.  The  Swami,  like  a  typical  religious  teacher  in  India,  felt 
himself  in  his  own  element.  The  students,  forgetting  all  the  inconveniences, 


Vivekananda  79 

hung  upon  every  word  uttered  from  the  teacher’s  deep  personal  experiences 
or  his  wide  range  of  knowledge. 

The  lectures,  given  every  morning  and  several  evenings  a  week,  were  free. 
The  rent  was  paid  by  the  voluntary  subscriptions  of  the  students,  and  the 
deficit  was  met  by  the  Swami  himself,  through  the  money  he  earned  by  giving 
secular  lectures  on  India.  Soon  the  meeting-place  had  to  be  removed  downstairs 
to  occupy  an  entire  parlour  floor. 

He  began  to  instruct  several  chosen  disciples  in  jnana-yoga  in  order  to  clarify 
their  intellects  regarding  the  subtle  truths  of  Vedanta,  and  also  in  raja-yoga  to 
teach  them  the  science  of  self-control,  concentration,  and  meditation.  He  was 
immensely  happy  with  the  result  of  his  concentrated  work.  He  enjoined  upon 
these  students  to  follow  strict  disciplines  regarding  food,  choosing  only  the 
simplest.  The  necessity  of  chastity  was  emphasized,  and  they  were  warned 
against  psychic  and  occult  powers.  At  the  same  time  he  broadened  their  intel¬ 
lectual  horizon  through  the  teachings  of  Vedantic  universality.  Daily  he  medi¬ 
tated  with  the  serious  students.  Often  he  would  lose  all  bodily  consciousness  and, 
like  Sri  Ramakrishna,  have  to  be  brought  back  to  the  knowledge  of  the  world 
through  the  repetition  of  certain  holy  words  that  he  had  taught  his  disciples. 

It  was  sometime  about  June  1895  when  Swami  Vivekananda  finished  writing 
his  famous  book  Raj a-Yoga,  which  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Harvard 
philosopher  William  fames  and  was  later  to  rouse  the  enthusiasm  of  Tolstoy. 
The  book  is  a  translation  of  Patanjali’s  Yoga  aphorisms,  the  Swami  adding 
his  own  explanations;  the  introductory  chapters  written  by  him  are  especially 
illuminating.  Patanjali  expounded,  through  these  aphorisms,  the  philosophy 
of  Yoga,  the  main  purpose  of  which  is  to  show  the  way  of  the  soul’s  attaining 
freedom  from  the  bondage  of  matter.  Various  methods  of  concentration  are 
discussed.  The  book  well  served  two  purposes.  First,  the  Swami  demonstrated 
that  religious  experiences  could  stand  on  the  same  footing  as  scientific  truths, 
being  based  on  experimentation,  observation,  and  verification.  Therefore  genu¬ 
ine  spiritual  experiences  must  not  be  dogmatically  discarded  as  lacking  rational 
evidence.  Secondly,  the  Swami  explained  lucidly  various  disciplines  of  concen¬ 
tration,  with  the  warning,  however,  that  they  should  not  be  pursued  without 
the  help  of  a  qualified  teacher. 

Miss  S.  Ellen  Waldo  of  Brooklyn,  a  disciple  of  the  Swami,  was  his  amanu¬ 
ensis.  She  thus  described  the  manner  in  which  he  dictated  the  book: 

“In  delivering  his  commentaries  on  the  aphorisms,  he  would  leave  me  waiting 
while  he  entered  into  deep  states  of  meditation  or  self-contemplation,  to  emerge 
therefrom  with  some  luminous  interpretation.  I  had  always  to  keep  the  pen 
dipped  in  the  ink.  He  might  be  absorbed  for  long  periods  of  time,  and  then 
suddenly  his  silence  would  be  broken  by  some  eager  expression  or  some  long, 
deliberate  teaching.”