Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda - Vol-7
ON SHRI RAMAKRISHNA AND HIS VIEWS
By force, think of one thing at least as Brahman. Of course it is
easier to think of Ramakrishna as God, but the danger is that we
cannot form Ishvara-buddhi (vision of Divinity) in others. God is
eternal, without any form, omnipresent. To think of Him as
possessing any form is blasphemy. But the secret of image-worship
is that you are trying to develop your vision of Divinity in one
thing.
Shri Ramakrishna used to consider himself as an Incarnation in the
ordinary sense of the term, though I could not understand it. I
used to say that he was Brahman in the Vedantic sense; but just
before his passing away, when he was suffering from the
characteristic difficulty in breathing, he said to me as I was
cogitating in my mind whether he could even in that pain say that
he was an Incarnation, "He who was Râma and Krishna has now
actually become Ramakrishna - but not in your Vedantic sense!" He
used to love me intensely, which made many quite jealous of me. He
knew one's character by sight, and never changed his opinion. He
could perceive, as it were, supersensual things, while we try to
know one's character by reason, with the result that our judgments
are often fallacious. He called some persons his Antarangas or
'belonging to the inner circle', and he used to teach them the
secrets of his own nature and those of Yoga. To the outsiders or
Bahirangas he taught those parables now known as "Sayings". He
used to prepare those young men (the former class) for his work,
and though many complained to him about them, he paid no heed. I
may have perhaps a better opinion of a Bahiranga than an Antaranga
through his actions, but I have a superstitious regard for the
latter. "Love me, love my dog", as they say. I love that Brahmin
priest intensely, and therefore, love whatever he used to love,
whatever he used to regard! He was afraid about me that I might
create a sect, if left to myself.
He used to say to some, "You will not attain spirituality in this
life." He sensed everything, and this will explain his apparent
partiality to some. He, as a scientist, used to see that different
people required different treatment. None except those of the
"inner circle" were allowed to sleep in his room. It is not true
that those who have not seen him will not attain salvation;
neither is it true that a man who has seen him thrice will attain
Mukti (liberation).
Devotion as taught by Nârada, he used to preach to the masses,
those who were incapable of any higher training.
He used generally to teach dualism. As a rule, he never taught
Advaitism. But he taught it to me. I had been a dualist before.
SHRI RAMAKRISHNA: THE NATION'S IDEAL
In order that a nation may rise, it must have a high ideal. Now,
that ideal is, of course, the abstract Brahman. But as you all
cannot be inspired by an abstract ideal, you must have a personal
ideal. You have got that, in the person of Shri Ramakrishna. The
reason why other personages cannot be our ideal now is, that their
days are gone; and in order that Vedanta may come to everyone,
there must be a person who is in sympathy with the present
generation. This is fulfilled in Shri Ramakrishna. So now you
should place him before everyone. Whether one accepts him as a
Sâdhu or an Avatâra does not matter.
He said he would come once more with us. Then, I think, he will
embrace Videha-Mukti (Absolute Emancipation). If you wish to work,
you must have such an Ishta-Devatâ, or Guardian Angel, as the
Christian nations call it. I sometimes imagine that different
nations have different Ishta-Devatas, and these are each trying
for supremacy. Sometimes I fancy, such an Ishta-Devata becomes
powerless to do service to a nation.
Notes of Lectures
MERCINARIES IN RELIGION
(Delivered in Minneapolis on November 26, 1893:
Reported in the Minneapolis Journal)
The Unitarian church was crowded yesterday morning by an audience
anxious to learn something of eastern religious thought as
outlined by Swami Vivekananda, a Brahmin priest, who was prominent
in the Parliament of Religions at Chicago last summer. The
distinguished representative of the Brahmin faith was brought to
Minneapolis by the Peripatetic Club, and he addressed that body
last Friday evening. He was induced to remain until this week, in
order that he might deliver the address yesterday. . . .
Dr. H.M. Simmons, the pastor, . . . read from Paul's lesson of
faith, hope and charity, and "the greatest of these is charity",
supplementing that reading by a selection from the Brahmin
scripture which teaches the same lesson, and also a selection from
the Moslem faith, and poems from the Hindu literature, all of
which are in harmony with Paul's utterances.
After a second hymn Swami Vivekandi [sic] was introduced. He
stepped to the edge of the platform and at once had his audience
interested by the recital of a Hindu story. He said in excellent
English:
"I will tell you a story of five blind men. There was a procession
in a village in India, and all the people turned out to see the
procession, and specially the gaily caparisoned elephant. The
people were delighted, and as the five blind men could not see,
they determined to touch the elephant that they might acquaint
themselves with its form. They were given the privilege, and after
the procession had passed, they returned home together with the
people, and they began to talk about the elephant. 'It was just
like a wall,' said one. 'No it wasn't,' said another, 'it was like
a piece of rope.' 'You are mistaken,' said a third, 'I felt him
and it was just a serpent.' The discussion grew excited, and the
fourth declared the elephant was like a pillow. The argument soon
broke into more angry expressions, and the five blind men took to
fighting. Along came a man with two eyes, and he said, 'My
friends, what is the matter?' The disputation was explained,
whereupon the new-comer said, 'Men, you are all right: the trouble
is you touched the elephant at different points. The wall was the
side, the rope was the tail, the serpent was the trunk, and the
toes were the pillow. Stop your quarrelling; you are all right,
only you have been viewing the elephant from different
standpoints."
Religion, he said, had become involved in such a quarrel. The
people of the West thought they had the only religion of God, and
the people of the East held the same prejudice. Both were wrong;
God was in every religion.
There were many bright criticisms on Western thought. The
Christians were characterised as having a "shopkeeping religion".
They were always begging of God - "O God, give me this and give me
that; O God, do this and do that." The Hindu couldn't understand
this. He thought it wrong to be begging of God. Instead of
begging, the religious man should give. The Hindu believed in
giving to God, to his fellows, instead of asking God to give to
them. He had observed that the people of the West, very many of
them, thought a great deal of God, so long as they got along all
right, but when the reverse came, then God was forgotten: not so
with the Hindu, who had come to look upon God as a being of love.
The Hindu faith recognised the motherhood of God as well as the
fatherhood, because the former was a better fulfilment of the idea
of love. The Western Christian would work all the week for the
dollar, and when he succeeded he would pray, "O God, we thank thee
for giving us this benefit", and then he would put all the money
into his pocket; the Hindu would make the money and then give it
to God by helping the poor and the less fortunate. And so
comparisons were made between the ideas of the West and the ideas
of the East. In speaking of God, Vivekanandi said in substance:
"You people of the West think you have God. What is it to have
God? If you have Him, why is it that so much criminality exists,
that nine out of ten people are hypocrites? Hypocrisy cannot exist
where God is. You have your palaces for the worship of God, and
you attend them in part for a time once a week, but how few go to
worship God. It is the fashion in the West to attend church, and
many of you attend for no other reason. Have you then, you people
of the West, any right to lay exclusive claim to the possession of
God?"
Here the speaker was interrupted by spontaneous applause. He
proceeded: "We of the Hindu faith believe in worshipping God for
love's sake, not for what He gives us, but because God is love,
and no nation, no people, no religion has God until it is willing
to worship Him for love's sake. You of the West are practical in
business, practical in great inventions, but we of the East are
practical in religion. You make commerce your business; we make
religion our business. If you will come to India and talk with the
workman in the field, you will find he has no opinion on politics.
He knows nothing of politics. But you talk to him of religion, and
the humblest knows about monotheism, deism, and all the isms of
religion. You ask:
"'What government do you live under?' and he will reply: 'I don't
know. I pay my taxes, and that's all I know about it.' I have
talked with your labourers, your farmers, and I find that in
politics they are all posted. They are either Democrat or
Republican, and they know whether they prefer free silver or a
gold standard. But you talk to them of religion; they are like the
Indian farmer, they don't know, they attend such a church, but
they don't know what it believes; they just pay their pew rent,
and that's all they know about it - or God."
The superstitions of India were admitted, "but what nation doesn't
have them?" he asked. In summing up, he held that the nations had
been looking at God as a monopoly. All nations had God, and any
impulse for good was God. The Western people, as well as the
Eastern people, must learn to "want God", and this "want" was
compared to the man under water, struggling for air; he wanted it,
he couldn't live without it. When the people of the West "wanted"
God in that manner, then they would be welcome in India, because
the missionaries would then come to them with God, not with the
idea that India knows not God, but with love in their hearts and
not dogma.
THE DESTINY OF MAN
(Delivered in Memphis on January 17, 1894:
Reported in Appeal-Avalanche)
The audience was moderately large, and was made up of the best
literary and musical talent of the city, including some of the
most distinguished members of the legal fraternity and financial
institutions.
The speaker differs in one respect in particular from some
American orators. He advances his ideas with as much deliberation
as a professor of mathematics demonstrates an example in algebra
to his students. Kananda (In those days Swamiji was generally
referred to by American Press as Vive Kananda.) speaks with
perfect faith in his own powers and ability to hold successfully
his position against all argument. He advances no ideas, nor make
assertions that he does not follow up to a logical conclusion.
Much of his lecture is something on the order of Ingersoll's
philosophy. He does not believe in future punishment nor in God as
Christians believe in Him. He does not believe the mind is
immortal, from the fact that it is dependent, and nothing can be
immortal except it is independent of all things. He says: "God is
not a king sitting away in one corner of the universe to deal out
punishment or rewards according to a man's deeds here on earth,
and the time will come when man will know the truth, and stand up
and say, 'I am God,' am life of His life. Why teach that God is
far away when our real nature, our immortal principle is God?
"Be not deluded by your religion teaching original sin, for the
same religion teaches original purity. When Adam fell, he fell
from purity. (Applause) Purity is our real nature, and to regain
that is the object of all religion. All men are pure; all men are
good. Some objections can be raised to them, and you ask why some
men are brutes? That man you call a brute is like the diamond in
the dirt and dust - brush the dust off and it is a diamond, just
as pure as if the dust had never been on it, and we must admit
that every soul is a big diamond.
"Nothing is baser than calling our brother a sinner. A lioness
once fell upon a flock of sheep and killed a lamb. A sheep found a
very young lion, and it followed her, and he gave it suck, and it
grew up with the sheep and learned to eat grass like a sheep. One
day an old lion saw the sheep lion and tried to get it away from
the sheep, but it ran away as he approached. The big lion waited
till he caught the sheep lion alone, and he seized it and carried
it to a clear pool of water and said, 'You are not a sheep, but a
lion; look at your picture in the water.' The sheep lion, seeing
its picture reflected from the water, said, 'I am a lion and not a
sheep.' Let us not think we are sheep, but be lions, and don't
bleat and eat grass like a sheep.
"For four months I have been in America. In Massachusetts I
visited a reformatory prison. The jailor at that prison never
knows for what crimes the prisoners are incarcerated. The mantle
of charity is thrown around them. In another city there were three
newspapers, edited by very learned men, trying to prove that
severe punishment was a necessity, while one other paper contended
that mercy was better than punishment. The editor of one paper
proved by statistics that only fifty per cent of criminals who
received severe punishment returned to honest lives, while ninety
per cent of those who received light punishment returned to useful
pursuits in life.
"Religion is not the outcome of the weakness of human nature;
religion is not here because we fear a tyrant; religion is love,
unfolding, expanding, growing. Take the watch - within the little
case is machinery and a spring. The spring, when wound up, tries
to regain its natural state. You are like the spring in the watch,
and it is not necessary that all watches have the same kind of a
spring, and it is not necessary that we all have the same
religion. And why should we quarrel? If we all had the same ideas
the world would be dead. External motion we call action; internal
motion is human thought. The stone falls to the earth. You say it
is caused by the law of gravitation. The horse draws the cart and
God draws the horse. That is the law of motion. Whirlpools show
the strength of the current; stop the current and stagnation
ensues. Motion is life. We must have unity and variety. The rose
would smell as sweet by any other name, and it does not matter
what your religion is called.
"Six blind men lived in a village. They could not see the
elephant, but they went out and felt of him. One put his hand on
the elephant's tail, one of them on his side, one on his tongue
[trunk], one on his ear. They began to describe the elephant. One
said he was like a rope; one said he was like a great wall; one
said he was like a boa constrictor, and another said he was like a
fan. They finally came to blows and went to pummelling each other.
A man who could see came along and inquired the trouble, and the
blind men said they had seen the elephant and disagreed because
one accused the other of lying. 'Well,' said the man, 'you have
all lied; you are blind, and neither of you have seen it.' That is
what is the matter with our religion. We let the blind see the
elephant. (Applause).
"A monk of India said, 'I would believe you if you were to say
that I could press the sands of the desert and get oil, or that I
could pluck the tooth from the mouth of the crocodile without
being bitten, but I cannot believe you when you say a bigot can be
changed.' You ask why is there so much variance in religions? The
answer is this: The little streams that ripple down a thousand
mountain sides are destined to come at last to the mighty ocean.
So with the different religions. They are destined at last to
bring us to the bosom of God. For 1,900 years you have been trying
to crush the Jews. Why could you not crush them? Echo answers:
Ignorance and bigotry can never crush truth."
The speaker continued in this strain of reasoning for nearly two
hours, and concluded by saying: "Let us help, and not destroy."
REINCARNATION
(Delivered in Memphis on January 19, 1894:
Reported in Appeal-Avalanche)
Swami Vive Kananda, the beturbaned and yellow-robed monk, lectured
again last night to a fair-sized and appreciative audience at the
La Salette Academy on Third street.
The subject was "Transmigration of the Soul, or "metempsychosis".
Possibly Vive Kananda never appeared to greater advantage than in
this role, so to speak. Metempsychosis is one of the most
widely-accepted beliefs among the Eastern races, and one that they
are ever ready to defend, at home or abroad. As Kananda said:
"Many of you do not know that it is one of the oldest religious
doctrines of all the old religions. It was known among the
Pharisees, among the Jews, among the first fathers of the
Christian Church, and was a common belief among the Arabs. And it
lingers still with the Hindus and the Buddhists.
"This state of things went on until the days of science which is
merely a contemplation of energies. Now, you Western people
believe this doctrine to be subversive of morality. In order to
have a full survey of the argument, its logical and metaphysical
features, we will have to go over all the ground. All of us
believe in a moral governor of this universe; yet nature reveals
to us instead of justice, injustice. One man is born under the
best of circumstances. Throughout his entire life circumstances
come ready made to his hands - all conducive to happiness and a
higher order of things. Another is born, and at every point his
life is at variance with that of his neighbour. He dies in
depravity, exiled from society. Why so much impartiality
[partiality] in the distribution of happiness?
"The theory of metempsychosis reconciles this disharmonious chord
in your common beliefs. Instead of making us immoral, this theory
give us the idea of justice. Some of you say: 'It is God's will.'
This is no answer. It is unscientific. Everything has a cause. The
sole cause and whole theory of causation being left with God,
makes Him a most immoral creature. But materialism is as much
illogical as the other. So far as we go, perception [causation?]
involves all things. Therefore, this doctrine of the
transmigration of the soul is necessary on these grounds. Here we
are all born. Is this the first creation? Is creation something
coming out of nothing? Analysed completely, this sentence is
nonsense. It is not creation, but manifestation.
"A something cannot be the effect of a cause that is not. If I put
my finger in the fire, the burn is a simultaneous effect, and I
know that the cause of the burn was the action of my placing my
finger in contact with the fire. And as in the case of nature,
there never was a time when nature did not exist, because the
cause has always existed. But for argument['s] sake, admit that
there was a time when there was no existence. Where was all this
mass of matter? To create something new would be the introduction
of so much more energy into the universe. This is impossible. Old
things can be re-created, but there can be no addition to the
universe.
"No mathematical demonstration could be made that would have this
theory of metempsychosis. According to logic, hypothesis and
theory must not be believed. But my contention is that no better
hypothesis has been forwarded by the human intellect to explain
the phenomena of life.
"I met with a peculiar incident while on a train leaving the city
of Minneapolis. There was a cowboy on the train. He was a rough
sort of a fellow and a Presbyterian of the blue nose type. He
walked up and asked me where I was from. I told him India. 'What
are you?' he said. 'Hindu', I replied. 'Then you must go to hell',
he remarked. I told him of this theory, and after [my] explaining
it, he said he had always believed in it because he said that one
day when he was chopping a log, his little sister came out in her
clothes and said that she used to be a man. That is why he
believed in the transmigration of souls. The whole basis of the
theory is this: If a man's actions be good, he must be a higher
being, and vice versa.
"There is another beauty in this theory - the moral motor [motive]
it supplies. What is done is done. It says, 'Ah, that it were done
better.' Do not put your finger in the fire again. Every moment is
a new chance."
Vive Kananda spoke in this strain for some time, and he was
frequently applauded.
Swami Vive Kananda will lecture again this after moon at 4 o'clock
at La Salette Academy on "The Manners and Customs of India."
COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY
(Delivered in Memphis on January 21, 1894:
Reported in Appeal-Avalanche)
"Comparative Theology" was the subject of a discourse last night
by Swami Vive Kananda at the Young Men's Hebrew Association Hall.
It was the blue-ribbon lecture of the series, and no doubt
increased the general admiration the people of this city entertain
for the learned gentleman.
Heretofore Vive Kananda has lectured for the benefit of one
charity-worthy object or another, and it can be safely said that
he has rendered them material aid. Last night, however, he
lectured for his own benefit. The lecture was planned and
sustained by Mr. Hu L. Brinkley, one of Vive Kananda's warmest
friends and most ardent admirers. In the neighbourhood of two
hundred gathered at the hall last night to hear the eminent
Easterner for the last time in this city.
The first question the speaker asserted in connection with the
subject was: "Can there be such a distinction between religions as
their creeds would imply?"
He asserted that no differences existed now, and he retraced the
line of progress made by all religions and brought it back to the
present day. He showed that such variance of opinion must of
necessity have existed with primitive man in regard to the idea of
God, but that as the world advanced step by step in a moral and
intellectual way, the distinctions became more and more
indistinct, until finally it had faded away entirely, and now
there was one all-prevalent doctrine - that of an absolute
existence.
"No savage", said the speaker, "can be found who does not believe
in some kind of a god."
"Modern science does not say whether it looks upon this as a
revelation or not. Love among savage nations is not very strong.
They live in terror. To their superstitious imaginations is
pictured some malignant spirit, before the thought of which they
quake in fear and terror. Whatever he likes he thinks will please
the evil spirit. What will pacify him he thinks will appease the
wrath of the spirit. To this end he labours even against his
fellow-savage."
The speaker went on to show by historical facts that the savage
man went from ancestral worship to the worship of elephants, and
later to gods, such as the God of Thunder and Storms. Then the
religion of the world was polytheism. "The beauty of the sunrise,
the grandeur of the sunset, the mystifying appearance of the
star-bedecked skies, and the weirdness of thunder and lightning
impressed primitive man with a force that he could not explain,
and suggested the idea of a higher and more powerful being
controlling the infinities that flocked before his gaze," said
Vive Kananda.
Then came another period - the period of monotheism. All the gods
disappeared and blended into one, the God of Gods, the ruler of
the universe. Then the speaker traced the Aryan race up to that
period, where they said: "We live and move in God. He is motion."
Then there came another period known to metaphysics as the "period
of Pantheism". This race rejected Polytheism and Monotheism, and
the idea that God was the universe, and said "the soul of my soul
is the only true existence. My nature is my existence and will
expand to me."
Vive Kananda then took up Buddhism. He said that they neither
asserted nor denied the existence of a God. Buddha would simply
say, when his counsel was sought: "You see misery. Then try to
lessen it." To a Buddhist misery is ever present, and society
measures the scope of his existence. Mohammedans, he said,
believed in the Old Testament of the Hindu [Hebrew] and the New
Testament of the Christian. They do not like the Christians, for
they say they are heretics and teach man-worship. Mohammed ever
forbade his followers having a picture of himself.
"The next question that arises," said he, "are these religions
true or are some of them true and some of them false? They have
all reached one conclusion, that of an absolute and infinite
existence. Unity is the object of religion. The multiple of
phenomena that is seen at every hand is only the infinite variety
of unity. An analysis of religion shows that man does not travel
from fallacy to truth, but from a lower truth to a higher truth.
"A man brings in a coat to a lot of people. Some say the coat does
not fit them. Well, you get out; you can't have a coat. Ask one
Christian minister what is the matter with all the other sects
that are opposed to his doctrines and dogmas, and he will answer:
'Oh, they're not Christians.' But we have better instruction than
these. Our own natures, love, and science - they teach us better.
Like the eddies to a river, take them away and stagnation follows.
Kill the difference in opinions, and it is the death of thought.
Motion is necessity. Thought is the motion of the mind, and when
that ceases death begins.
"If you put a simple molecule of air in the bottom of a glass of
water it at once begins a struggle to join the infinite atmosphere
above. So it is with the soul. It is struggling to regain its pure
nature and to free itself from this material body. It wants to
regain its own infinite expansion. This is everywhere the same.
Among Christians, Buddhists, Mohammedans, agnostic, or priest, the
soul is struggling. A river flows a thousand miles down the
circuitous mountain side to where it joins the seas, and a man is
standing there to tell it to go back and start anew and assume a
more direct course! That man is a fool. You are a river that flows
from the heights of Zion. I flow from the lofty peaks of the
Himalayas. I don't say to you, go back and come down as I did,
you're wrong. That is more wrong than foolish. Stick to your
beliefs. The truth is never lost. Books may perish, nations may go
down in a crash, but the truth is preserved and is taken up by
some man and handed back to society, which proves a grand and
continuous revelation of God."
BUDDHISM, THE RELIGION OF THE LIGHT OF ASIA
(Delivered in Detroit on March 19, 1894:
Reported in Detroit Tribune)
Vive Kananda lectured to an audience of about 150 [according to
the Journal, 500] at the Auditorium last night upon "Buddhism, the
Religion of the Light of Asia." Honourable Don M. Dickinson
introduced him to the audience.
"Who shall say that this system of religion is divine and that
doomed?" asked Mr. Dickinson in his introductory remarks. "Who
shall draw the mystic line?"
Vive Kananda reviewed at length the early religions of India. He
told of the great slaughter of animals on the altar of sacrifice;
of Buddha's birth and life; of his puzzling questions to himself
over the causes of creation and the reasons for existence; of the
earnest struggle of Buddha to find the solution of creation and
life; of the final result.
Buddha, he said, stood head and shoulders above all other men. He
was one, he said, [of] whom his friends or enemies could never say
that he drew a breath or ate a crumb of bread but for the good of
all.
"He never preached transmigration of the soul," said Kananda,
"except he believed one soul was to its successor like the wave of
the ocean that grew and died away, leaving naught to the
succeeding wave but its force. He never preached that there was a
God, nor did he deny there was a God.
"'Why should we be good?' his disciples asked of him.
"'Because', he said, 'you inherited good. Let you in your turn
leave some heritage of good to your successors. Let us all help
the onward march of accumulated goodness, for goodness' sake.'
"He was the first prophet. He never abused any one or arrogated
anything to himself. He believed in our working out our own
salvation in religion.
"'I can't tell you,' he said, on his deathbed, 'nor any one.
Depend not on any one. Work out your own religion [salvation].'
"He protested against the inequality of man and man, or of man and
beast. All life was equal, he preached. He was the first man to
uphold the doctrine of prohibition in liquors. 'Be good and do
good', he said. 'If there is a God, you have Him by being good. If
there is no God, being good is good. He is to be blamed for all he
suffers. He is to be praised for all his good.'
"He was the first who brought the missionaries into existence. He
came as a saviour to the downtrodden millions of India. They could
not understand his philosophy, but they saw the man and his
teachings, and they followed him."
In conclusion Kananda said that Buddhism was the foundation of the
Christian religion; that the catholic church came from Buddhism.
THE SCIENCE OF YOGA
(Fragmentary notes of a lecture recorded by Ida Ansell and
reprinted from Vedanta and the West, July-August 1957.)
(Delivered at Tucker Hall, Alameda, California, on April 13, 1900)
The old Sanskrit word Yoga is defined as [Chittavrittinirodha]. It
means that Yoga is the science that teaches us to bring the Chitta
under control from the state of change. The Chitta is the stuff
from which our minds are made and which is being constantly
churned into waves by external and internal influences. Yoga
teaches us how to control the mind so that it is not thrown out of
balance into wave forms. . . .
What does this mean? To the student of religion almost ninety-nine
per cent of the books and thoughts of religion are mere
speculations. One man thinks religion is this and another, that.
If one man is more clever than the others, he overthrows their
speculations and starts a new one. Men have been studying new
religious systems for the last two thousand, four thousand, years
- how long exactly nobody knows. . . . When they could not reason
them out, they said, "Believe!" If they were powerful, they forced
their beliefs. This is going on even now.
But there are a set of people who are not entirely satisfied with
this sort of thing. "Is there no way out?" they ask. You do not
speculate that way in physics, chemistry, and mathematics. Why
cannot the science of religion be like any other science? They
proposed this way: If such a thing as the soul of man really
exists, if it is immortal, if God really exists as the ruler of
this universe - He must be [known] here; and all that must be
[realised] in [your own] consciousness.
The mind cannot be analysed by any external machine. Supposing you
could look into my brain while I am thinking, you would only see
certain molecules interchanged. You could not see thought,
consciousness, ideas, images. You would simply see the mass of
vibrations - chemical and physical changes. From this example we
see that this sort of analysis would not do.
Is there any other method by which the mind can be analysed as
mind? If there is, then the real science of religion is possible.
The science of Raja-Yoga claims there is such a possibility. We
can all attempt it and succeed to a certain degree. There is this
great difficulty: In external sciences the object is
[comparatively easy to observe]. The instruments of analysis are
rigid; and both are external. But in the analysis of the mind the
object and the instruments of analysis are the same thing. . . .
The subject and the object become one. . . .
External analysis will go to the brain and find physical and
chemical changes. It would never succeed [in answering the
questions]: What is the consciousness? What is your imagination?
Where does this vast mass of ideas you have come from, and where
do they go? We cannot deny them. They are facts. I never saw my
own brain. I have to take for granted I have one. But man can
never deny his own conscious imagination. .
The great problem is ourselves. Am I the long chain I do not see -
one piece following the other in rapid succession but quite
unconnected? Am I such a state of consciousness [for ever in a
flux]? Or am I something more than that - a substance, an entity,
what we call the soul? In other words, has man a soul or not? Is
he a bundle of states of consciousness without any connection, or
is he a unified substance? That is the great controversy. If we
are merely bundles of consciousness . . . such a question as
immortality would be merely delusion. . . . On the other hand, if
there is something in me which is a unit, a substance, then of
course I am immortal. The unit cannot be destroyed or broken into
pieces. Only compounds can be broken up. . . .
All religions except Buddhism believe and struggle in some way or
other to reach such a substance. Buddhism denies the substance and
is quite satisfied with that. It says, this business about God,
the soul, immortality, and all that - do not vex yourselves with
such questions. But all the other religions of the world cling to
this substance. They all believe that the soul is the substance in
man in spite of all the changes, that God is the substance which
is in the universe. They all believe in the immortality of the
soul. These are speculations. Who is to decide the controversy
between the Buddhists and the Christians? Christianity says there
is a substance that will live for ever. The Christian says, "My
Bible says so." The Buddhist says, "I do not believe in your
book." . . .
The question is: Are we the substance [the soul] or this subtle
matter, the changing, billowing mind? . . . Our minds are
constantly changing. Where is the substance within? We do not find
it. I am now this and now that. I will believe in the substance if
for a moment you can stop these changes. . . .
Of course all the beliefs in God and heaven are little beliefs of
organised religions. Any scientific religion never proposes such
things.
Yoga is the science that teaches us to stop the Chitta [the
mind-stuff] from getting into these changes. Suppose you succeed
in leading the mind to a perfect state of Yoga. That moment you
have solved the problem. You have known what you are. You have
mastered all the changes. After that you may let the mind run
about, but it is not the same mind any more. It is perfectly under
your control. No more like wild horses that dash you down. . . .
You have seen God. This is no longer a matter of speculation.
There is no more Mr. So-and-So . . . no more books or Vedas, or
controversy of preachers, or anything. You have been yourself: I
am the substance beyond all these changes. I am not the changes;
if I were, I could not stop them. I can stop the changes, and
therefore I can never be the changes. This is the proposition of
the science of Yoga. . . .
We do not like these changes. We do not like changes at all. Every
change is being forced upon us. . . . In our country bullocks
carry a yoke on their shoulders [which is connected by a pole with
an oil press]. From the yoke projects a piece of wood [to which is
tied a bundle of grass] just far enough to tempt the bullock, but
he cannot reach it. He wants to eat the grass and goes a little
farther [thereby turning the oil press]. . . . We are like these
bullocks, always trying to eat the grass and stretching our necks
to reach it. We go round and round this way. Nobody likes these
changes. Certainly not! . . . All these changes are forced upon
us. . . . We cannot help it. Once we have put ourselves in the
machine, we must go on and on. The moment we stop, there is
greater evil than if we continued forward. . . .
Of course misery comes to us. It is all misery because it is all
unwilling. It is all forced. Nature orders us and we obey, but
there is not much love lost between us and nature. All our work is
an attempt to escape nature. We say we are enjoying nature. If we
analyse ourselves, we find that we are trying to escape everything
and invent ways to enjoy this and that. . . . [Nature is] like the
Frenchman who had invited an English friend and told him of his
old wines in the cellar. He called for a bottle of old wine. It
was so beautiful, and the light sparkled inside like a piece of
gold. His butler poured out a glass, and the Englishman quietly
drank it. The butler had brought in a bottle of castor oil! We are
drinking castor oil all the time; we cannot help it. . . .
[People in general] . . . are so reduced to machinery they do not
. . . even think. Just like cats, dogs and other animals, they are
also driven with the whip by nature. They never disobey, never
think of it. But even they have some experience of life. . . .
[Some, however,] begin to question: What is this? What are all
these experiences for? What is the Self? Is there any escape? Any
meaning to life? . . .
The good will die. The wicked will die. Kings will die, and
beggars will die. The great misery is death. . . .All the time we
are trying to avoid it. And if we die in a comfortable religion,
we think we will see Johns and Jacks afterwards and have a good
time.
In your country they bring Johns and Jacks down to show you [in
Seances]. I saw such people numbers of times and shook hands with
them. Many of you may have seen them. They bang the piano and sing
"Beulah Land": America is a vast land. My home is on the other
side of the world. I do not know where Beulah Land is. You will
not find it in any geography. See our good comfortable religion!
The old, old moth-eaten belief!
Those people cannot think. What can be done for them? They have
been eaten up by the world. There is nothing in them to think.
Their bones have become hollow, their brains are like cheese. . .
. I sympathise with them. Let them have their comfort! Some people
are evidently very much comforted by seeing their ancestors from
Beulah Land.
One of these mediums offered to bring my ancestors down to me. I
said, "Stop there. Do anything you like, but if you bring my
ancestors, I don't know if I can restrain myself." The medium was
very kind and stopped.
In our country, when we begin to get worried by things, we pay
something to the priests and make a bargain with God. . . . For
the time being we feel comforted, otherwise we will not pay the
priests. A little comfort comes, but [it turns] into reaction
shortly. . . . So again misery comes. The same misery is here all
the time. Your people in our country says, "If you believe in our
doctrine you are safe." Our people among the lower classes believe
in your doctrines. The only change is that they become beggars. .
. . But is that religion? It is politics - not religion. You may
call it religion, dragging the word religion down to that sense.
But it is not spiritual.
Among thousands of men and women a few are inclined to something
higher than this life. The others are like sheep. . . . Some among
thousands try to understand things, to find a way out. The
question is: Is there a way out? If there is a way out, it is in
the soul and nowhere else. The ways out from other sources have
been tried enough, and all [have been found wanting]. People do
not find satisfaction. The very fact that those myriads of
theories and sects exist show that people do not find
satisfaction.
The science of Yoga proposes this, that the one way out is through
ourselves. We have to individualise ourselves. If there is any
truth, we can [realise it as our very essence]. . . . We will
cease being driven about by nature from place to place. . . .
The phenomenal world is always changing: [to reach the Changeless]
that is our goal. We want to be That, to realise that Absolute,
the [changeless] Reality. What is preventing us from realising
that Reality? It is the fact of creation. The creative mind is
creating all the time and gets mixed up with its own creation.
[But we must also remember that] it is creation that discovered
God. It is creation that discovered the Absolute in every
individual soul. . . .
Going back to our definition: Yoga is stopping the Chitta, the
mind-stuff, from getting into these changes. When all this
creation has been stopped - if it is possible to stop it - then we
shall see for ourselves what we are in reality. . . . The
Uncreated, the One that creates, manifests itself.
The methods of Yoga are various. Some of them are very difficult;
it takes long training to succeed. Some are easy. Those who have
the perseverance and strength to follow it through attain to great
results. Those who do not may take a simpler method and get some
benefit out of it.
As to the proper analysis of the mind, we see at once how
difficult it is to grapple with the mind itself. We have become
bodies. That we are souls we have forgotten entirely. When we
think of ourselves, it is the body that comes into our
imagination. We behave as bodies. We talk as bodies. We are all
body. From this body we have to separate the soul. Therefore the
training begins with the body itself, [until ultimately] the
spirit manifests itself. . . . The central idea in all this
training is to attain to that power of concentration, the power of
meditation.
Epistles – Third Series
NOTE
Before leaving for the USA, Swamiji used to change his name very
often. In earlier years he signed as Narendra or Naren; then for
some time as Vividishananda or Sachchidananda. But for the
convenience of the readers, these volumes use the more familiar
name Vivekananda.
PUBLISHER
I
(Translated from Bengali)
Glory to Ramakrishna!
BAIDYANATH,
25th December, 1889.
DEAR SIR (Shri Balaram Bose),
I have been staying for the last few days at Baidyanath in Purna
Babu's Lodge. It is not so cold, and my health too is indifferent.
I am suffering from indigestion, probably due to excess of iron in
the water. I have found nothing agreeable here - neither the
place, nor the season, nor the company. I leave for Varanasi
tomorrow. Achyutananda stopped at Govinda Chaudhury's place at
Deoghar, and the latter, as soon as he got news of us, earnestly
insisted on our becoming his guests. Finally, he met us once again
and prevailed on us to accede to his request. The man is a great
worker, but has a number of women with him - old women most of
them, of the ordinary Vaishnava type. . . . His clerks too revere
us much; some of them are very much ill-disposed towards him, and
they spoke of his misdeeds. Incidentally, I raised the topic of
__. You have many wrong ideas or doubts about her; hence I write
all this after particular investigation. Even the aged clerks of
this establishment highly respect and revere her. She came to stop
with __ while she was a mere child, and ever lived as his wife. .
. . Everyone admits in one voice that her character is spotless.
She was all along a perfectly chaste woman and never behaved with
__ in any relation but that of wife to husband, and she was
absolutely faithful. She came at too early an age to have incurred
any moral taint. After she had separated from __, she wrote to him
to say that she had never treated him as anything but her husband,
but that it was impossible for her to live with a man with a loose
character. His old office-bearers too believe him to be satanic in
character; but they consider __ a Devi (angel), and remark that it
was following her departure that __ lost all sense of shame.
My object in writing all this is that formerly I was not a
believer in the tale of the lady's early life. The idea that there
might be such purity in the midst of a relation which society does
not recognise, I used to consider as romance. But after thorough
investigation I have come to know that it is all right. She is
very pure, pure from her infancy - I have not the least doubt
about it. For entertaining those doubts, you and I and everyone
are guilty to her; I make repeated salutations to her, and ask her
pardon for my guilt. She is not a liar.
I take this opportunity to record that such courage is impossible
in a lying and unchaste woman. I have also been told that she had
a lifelong ardent faith in religion also.
Well, your disease is not yet improving! I don't think this is a
place for patients unless one is ready to spend a good deal of
money. Please think out some judicious course. Here every article
will have to be procured from elsewhere.
Yours sincerely,
VIVEKANANDA.
II
(Translated from Bengali)
Glory to Ramakrishna!
ALLAHABAD,
30th December, 1889.
DEAR SIR (Shri Balaram Bose),
Gupta left a slip when coming and the next day a letter from
Yogananda gave me all the news and I immediately started for
Allahabad which I reached the day after, to find that Yogananda
had completely recovered. He had chicken-pox (with one or two
smallpox rashes also). The doctor is a noble soul, and they have
got a brotherhood, who are all great pious men and highly devoted
to the service of Sâdhus. They are particularly anxious that I
pass the month of Mâgh here, but I am leaving for Varanasi. . . .
How are you? I pray to God for the welfare of yourself and your
family. Please convey my compliments to Tulasiram, Chuni Babu, and
the rest.
Yours affectionately,
VIVEKANANDA.
III
(Translated from Bengali)
GHAZIPUR,
30th January, 1890.
REVERED SIR (Shri Balaram Bose),
I am now stopping with Satish Babu at Ghazipur. Of the few places
I have recently visited, this is the healthiest. The water of
Baidyanath is very bad - it leads to indigestion. Allahabad is
very congested. The few days I passed at Varanasi, I suffered from
fever day and night - the place is so malarious! Ghazipur has a
very salubrious climate - specially the quarter I am living in. I
have visited Pavhari Baba's house - there are high walls all
round, and it is fashioned like an English bungalow. There is a
garden inside and big rooms and chimneys, etc. He allows nobody to
enter. If he is so inclined, he comes up to the door and speaks
from inside - that is all. One day I went and waited and waited in
the cold and had to return. I shall go to Varanasi on Sunday next.
If the meeting with the Babaji takes place in the meantime, all
right, otherwise I bid him good-bye. About Pramada Babu's place I
shall write definitely from Varanasi. If Kali Bhattacharya is
determined to come, let him do so after I leave for Varanasi on
Sunday, but he should rather not. After a few days' stay at
Varanasi, I shall start for Hrishikesh. Pramada Babu may accompany
me. Please accept all of you my cordial greetings - and blessing
to Fakir, Ram, Krishnamayi, etc.
Yours affectionately,
VIVEKANANDA.
PS. In my opinion, it will do you much good if you come and stay
for some time at Ghazipur. Here Satish will be able to secure a
bungalow for you, and there is a gentleman, Gagan Chandra Ray by
name, who is the head of the Opium Office and is exceedingly
courteous, philanthropic, and social - they will arrange for
everything. The house-rent is fifteen to twenty rupees; rice is
dear, and milk sells at sixteen to twenty seers a rupee; all other
things are very cheap. Besides, under the care of these gentlemen,
there is no chance of any difficulty. But it is slightly expensive
- it will cost over forty to fifty rupees. Varanasi is horribly
malarious. I have never lived in Pramada Babu's garden. He likes
to have me always in his company. The garden is indeed very
beautiful, richly laid out, spacious, and open. This time when I
go, I shall live there and report to you.
IV
(Translated from Bengali)
Salutation to Bhagavan Ramakrishna!
C/O Satish Mukherji,
GORABAZAR, GHAZIPUR.
14th February, 1890.
REVERED SIR (Shri Balaram Bose),
I am in receipt of your letter of contrition. I am not leaving
this place soon - it is impossible to avoid the Babaji's request.
You have expressed remorse at not having reaped any appreciable
results by serving the Sadhus. It is true, and yet not true; it is
true if you look towards ideal bliss; but if you look behind to
the place from which you started, you will find that before you
were an animal, now you are a man, and will be a god or God
Himself in future. Moreover, that sort of regret and
dissatisfaction is very good; it is the prelude to improvement.
Without this none can rise. He who puts on a turban and
immediately sees the Lord, progresses thus far and no farther. You
are blessed indeed to have that constant dissatisfaction preying
upon your mind - rest assured that there is no danger for you. . .
. You are a keenly intelligent man, and know full well that
patience is the best means of success. In this respect I have no
doubt that we light-headed boys have much to learn from you. . . .
You are a considerate man, and I need not add anything. Man has
two ears but one mouth. You specially are given to plain-speaking
and are chary of making large promises - things that sometimes
make me cross with you, but upon reflection I find that it is you
who have acted with discretion. "Slow but sure." "What is lost in
power is gained in speed." However, in this world everything
depends upon one's words. To get an insight behind the words
(specially, with your economical spirit masking all) is not given
to all, and one must associate long with a man to be able to
understand him. . . . Religion is not in sects, nor in making a
fuss - why do you forget these teachings of our revered Master?
Please help as far as it lies in you, but to judge what came of
it, whether it was turned to good or evil account, is perhaps
beyond our jurisdiction. . . . Considering the great shock which
Girish Babu has received, it will give him immense peace to serve
Mother at this moment. He is a very keen-witted person. And our
beloved Master had perfect confidence in you, used to dine nowhere
else except at your place, and, I have heard, Mother too has the
fullest confidence in you. In view of these, you will please bear
and forbear all shortcomings of us fickle boys, treating them as
if they were done by your own boy. This is all I have got to say.
Please let me know by return of post when the Anniversary is to
take place. A pain in the loins is giving me much trouble. In a
few days the place will look exceedingly beautiful, with miles and
miles of rose-banks all in flower. Satish says he will then send
some fresh roses and cuttings for the Festival. . . . May the Lord
ordain that your son becomes a man, and never a coward!
Yours affectionately,
VIVEKANANDA.
PS. If Mother has come, please convey to her my countless
salutations, and ask her to bless me that I may have unflinching
perseverance. Or, if that be impossible in this body, may it fall
off soon!
V
(Translated from Bengali)
GHAZIPUR,
14th Feb.,1890.
MY DEAR GUPTA (Swami Sadananda),
I hope you are doing well. Do your own spiritual exercises, and
knowing yourself to be the humblest servant of all, serve them.
Those with whom you are staying are such that even I am not worthy
to call myself their humblest servant and take the dust of their
feet. Knowing this, serve them and have devotion for them. Don't
be angry even if they abuse or even hurt you grievously. Never mix
with women. Try to be hardy little by little, and gradually
accustom yourself to maintaining the body out of the proceeds of
begging. Whoever takes the name of Ramakrishna, know him to be
your Guru. Everyone can play the role of a master, but it is very
difficult to be a servant. Specially you should follow Shashi.
Know it for certain that without steady devotion for the Guru and
unflinching patience and perseverance, nothing is to be achieved.
You must have strict morality. Deviate an inch from this, and you
are gone forever.
Yours affectionately,
VIVEKANANDA.
VI
(Translated from Bengali)
Glory to Ramakrishna!
GHAZIPUR,
15th March, 1890.
REVERED SIR (Shri Balaram Bose),
Received your kind note yesterday. I am very sorry to learn that
Suresh Babu's illness is extremely serious. What is destined will
surely happen. It is a matter of great regret that you too have
fallen ill. So long as egoism lasts, any shortcoming in adopting
remedial measures is to be considered as idleness - it is a fault
and a guilt. For one who has not that egoistic idea, the best
course is to forbear. The dwelling-place of the Jivâtman, this
body, is a veritable means of work, and he who converts this into
an infernal den is guilty, and he who neglects it is also to
blame. Please act according to circumstances as they present
themselves, without the least hesitation.
नाभिनन्देत् मरणं नाभिनन्देत् जीवितम्।
कालमेव प्रतीक्षेत नियमं भ्तको यथा॥
- "The highest duty consists in doing the little that lies in
one's power, seeking neither death nor life, and biding one's time
like a servant ready to do any behest."
There is a dreadful outbreak of influenza at Varanasi and Pramada
Babu has gone to Allahabad. Baburam has suddenly come here. He has
got fever; he was wrong to start under such circumstances. . . . I
am leaving this place tomorrow. . . . My countless salutations to
Mother. You all bless me that I may have sameness of vision, that
after avoiding the bondages which one is heir to by one's very
birth, I may not again get stuck in self-imposed bondages. If
there be any Doer of good and if He have the power and the
opportunity, may He vouchsafe the highest blessings unto you all -
this is my constant prayer.
Yours affectionately,
VIVEKANANDA.
VII
(Translated from Bengali)
GHAZIPUR,
15th March, 1890.
DEAR ATUL BABU (Atul Chandra Ghosh.),
I am extremely sorry to hear that you are passing through mental
afflictions. Please do only what is agreeable to you.
यावज्जननं तावन्मरणं
तावज्जननीजठरे शयनम्।
इति संसारे स्फुटतरदोष:
कथमिह मानव तव सन्तोष:॥
- "While there is birth there is death, and again entering the
mother's womb. This is the manifest evil of transmigration. How, O
man, dost thou want satisfaction in such a world!"
Yours affectionately,
VIVEKANANDA.
PS. I am leaving this place tomorrow. Let me see which way destiny
leads!
VIII
SALEM (U.S.A.),
30th Aug., 1893.
DEAR ADHYAPAKJI (HONOURABLE PROFESSOR) (Prof. John Henry Wright),
I am going off from here today. I hope you have received some
reply from Chicago. I have received an invitation with full
directions from Mr. Sanborn. So I am going to Saratoga on Monday.
My respects to your wife. And my love to Austin and all the
children. You are a real Mahâtmâ (a great soul) and Mrs. Wright is
nonpareil.
Yours affectionately,
VIVEKANANDA.
IX
SALEM,
Saturday, 4th Sept., 1893.
DEAR ADHYAPAKJI (Prof. John Henry Wright),
I hasten to tender my heartfelt gratitude to you for your letters
of introduction. I have received a letter from Mr. Theles of
Chicago giving me the names of some of the delegates and other
things about the Congress.
Your professor of Sanskrit in his note to Miss Sanborn mistakes me
for Purushottama Joshi and states that there is a Sanskrit library
in Boston the like of which can scarcely be met with in India. I
would be so happy to see it.
Mr. Sanborn has written to me to come over to Saratoga on Monday
and I am going accordingly. I would stop then at a boarding house
called Sanatorium. If any news come from Chicago in the meanwhile
I hope you will kindly send it over to the Sanatorium, Saratoga.
You and your noble wife and sweet children have made an impression
in my brain which is simply indelible, and I thought myself so
much nearer to heaven when living with you. May He, the giver of
all gifts, shower on your head His choicest blessings.
Here are a few lines written as an attempt at poetry. Hoping your
love will pardon this infliction.
Ever your friend,
VIVEKANANDA.
O'er hill and dale and mountain range,
In temple, church, and mosque,
In Vedas, Bible, Al Koran
I had searched for Thee in vain.
Like a child in the wildest forest lost
I have cried and cried alone,
"Where art Thou gone, my God, my love?"
The echo answered, "gone."
And days and nights and years then passed -
A fire was in the brain;
I knew not when day changed in night,
The heart seemed rent in twain.
I laid me down on Gangâ's shore,
Exposed to sun and rain;
With burning tears I laid the dust
And wailed with waters' roar.
I called on all the holy names
Of every clime and creed,
"Show me the way, in mercy, ye
Great ones who have reached the goal".
Years then passed in bitter cry,
Each moment seemed an age,
Till one day midst my cries and groans
Some one seemed calling me.
A gentle soft and soothing voice
That said "my son", "my son",
That seemed to thrill in unison
With all the chords of my soul.
I stood on my feet and tried to find
The place the voice came from;
I searched and searched and turned to see
Round me, before, behind.
Again, again it seemed to speak -
The voice divine to me.
In rapture all my soul was hushed,
Entranced, enthralled in bliss.
A flash illumined all my soul;
The heart of my heart opened wide.
O joy, O bliss, what do I find!
My love, my love, you are here,
And you are here, my love, my all!
And I was searching thee!
From all eternity you were there
Enthroned in majesty!
From that day forth, where'er I roam,
I feel Him standing by
O'er hill and dale, high mount and vale,
Far far away and high.
The moon's soft light, the stars so bright,
The glorious orb of day,
He shines in them; His beauty - might -
Reflected lights are they.
The majestic morn, the melting eve,
The boundless billowy sea,
In nature's beauty, songs of birds,
I see through them - it is He.
When dire calamity seizes me,
The heart seems weak and faint,
All nature seems to crush me down,
With laws that never bend.
Meseems I hear Thee whispering sweet
My love, "I am near", "I am near".
My heart gets strong. With Thee, my love,
A thousand deaths no fear.
Thou speakest in the mother's lay
That shuts the baby's eye;
When innocent children laugh and play
I see Thee standing by.
When holy friendship shakes the hand,
He stands between them too;
He pours the nectar in mother's kiss
And the baby's sweet "mama".
Thou wert my God with prophets old;
All creeds do come from Thee;
The Vedas, Bible, and Koran bold
Sing Thee in harmony.
"Thou art", "Thou art" the Soul of souls
In the rushing stream of life.
"Om tat Sat om." (Tat Sat means that only real existence.
[Swamiji's note].) Thou art my God.
My love, I am thine, I am thine.
X
CHICAGO,
2nd October, 1893.
DEAR ADHYAPAKJI (Prof. John Henry Wright),
I do not know what you are thinking of my long silence. In the
first place I dropped in on the Congress in the eleventh hour, and
quite unprepared; and that kept me very very busy for some time.
Secondly, I was speaking almost every day in the Congress and had
no time to write; and last and greatest of all - my kind friend, I
owe so much to you that it would have been an insult to your
ahetuka (unselfish) friendship to have written you business-like
letters in a hurry. The Congress is now over.
Dear brother, I was so so afraid to stand before that great
assembly of fine speakers and thinkers from all over the world and
speak; but the Lord gave me strength, and I almost every day
heroically (?) faced the platform and the audience. If I have done
well, He gave me the strength for it; if I have miserably failed -
I knew that beforehand - for I am hopelessly ignorant.
Your friend Prof. Bradley was very kind to me and he always
cheered me on. And oh! Everybody is so kind here to me who am
nothing - that it is beyond my power of expression. Glory unto Him
in the highest in whose sight the poor ignorant monk from India is
the same as the learned divines of this mighty land. And how the
Lord is helping me every day of my life, brother - I sometimes
wish for a life of [a] million million ages to serve Him through
the work, dressed in rags and fed by charity.
Oh, how I wished that you were here to see some of our sweet ones
from India - the tender-hearted Buddhist Dharmapala, the orator
Mazoomdar - and realise that in that far-off and poor India there
are hearts that beat in sympathy to yours, born and brought up in
this mighty and great country.
My eternal respects to your holy wife; and to your sweet children
my eternal love and blessings.
Col. Higginson, a very broad man, told me that your daughter had
written to his daughter about me; and he was very sympathetic to
me. I am going to Evanston tomorrow and hope to see Prof. Bradley
there.
May He make us all more and more pure and holy so that we may live
a perfect spiritual life even before throwing off this earthly
body.
VIVEKANANDA.
[The letter continues on a separate sheet of paper:]
I am now going to be reconciled to my life here. All my life I
have been taking every circumstance as coming from Him and calmly
adapting myself to it. At first in America I was almost out of my
water. I was afraid I would have to give up the accustomed way of
being guided by the Lord and cater for myself - and what a horrid
piece of mischief and ingratitude was that. I now clearly see that
He who was guiding me on the snow tops of the Himalayas and the
burning plains of India is here to help me and guide me. Glory
unto Him in the highest. So I have calmly fallen into my old ways.
Somebody or other gives me a shelter and food, somebody or other
comes to ask me to speak about Him, and I know He sends them and
mine is to obey. And then He is supplying my necessities, and His
will be done!
"He who rests [in] Me and gives up all other self-assertion and
struggles I carry to him whatever he needs" (Gitâ).
So it is in Asia. So in Europe. So in America. So in the deserts
of India. So in the rush of business in America. For is He not
here also? And if He does not, I only would take for granted that
He wants that I should lay aside this three minutes' body of clay
- and hope to lay it down gladly.
We may or may not meet, brother. He knows. You are great, learned,
and holy. I dare not preach to you or your wife; but to your
children I quote these passages from the Vedas -
"The four Vedas, sciences, languages, philosophy, and all other
learnings are only ornamental. The real learning, the true
knowledge is that which enables us to reach Him who is
unchangeable in His love."
"How real, how tangible, how visible is He through whom the skin
touches, the eyes see, and the world gets its reality!"
"Hearing Him nothing remains to be heard,
Seeing Him nothing remains to be seen,
Attaining Him nothing remains to be attained."
"He is the eye of our eyes, the ear of our ears, the Soul of our
souls."
He is nearer to you, my dears, than even your father and mother.
You are innocent and pure as flowers. Remain so, and He will
reveal Himself unto you. Dear Austin, when you are playing, there
is another playmate playing with you who loves you more than
anybody else; and Oh, He is so full of fun. He is always playing -
sometimes with great big balls which we call the sun and earth,
sometimes with little children like you and laughing and playing
with you. How funny it would be to see Him and play with Him! My
dear, think of it.
Dear Adhyapakji, I am moving about just now. Only when I come to
Chicago, I always go to see Mr. and Mrs. Lyons, one of the noblest
couples I have seen here. If you would be kind enough to write to
me, kindly address it to the care of Mr. John B. Lyon, 262
Michigan Ave., Chicago.
"He who gets hold of the One in this world of many - the one
constant existence in a world of flitting shadows - the one life
in a world of death - he alone crosses this sea of misery and
struggle. None else, none else" (Vedas).
"He who is the Brahman of the Vedântins, Ishvara of the
Naiyâyikas, Purusha of the Sânkhyas, cause of the Mimâmsakas, law
of the Buddhists, absolute zero of the Atheists, and love infinite
unto those that love, may [He] take us all under His merciful
protection": Udayanâchârya - a great philosopher of the Nyâya or
Dualistic school. And this is the Benediction pronounced at the
very beginning of his wonderful book Kusumânjali (A handful of
flowers), in which he attempts to establish the existence of a
personal creator and moral ruler of infinite love independently of
revelation.
Your ever grateful friend,
VIVEKANANDA.
XI
CHICAGO,
10th October, 1893.
DEAR MRS. TANNATT WOODS,
I received your letter yesterday. Just now I am lecturing about
Chicago - and am doing as I think very well; it is ranging from 30
to 80 dollars a lecture, and just now I have been so well
advertised in Chicago gratis by the Parliament of Religions that
it is not advisable to give up this field now. To which I am sure
you will agree. However I may come soon to Boston, but when I
cannot say. Yesterday I returned from Streator where I got 87
dollars for a lecture. I have engagements every day this week. And
hope more will come by the end of the week. My love to Mr. Woods
and compliments to all our friends.
Yours truly,
VIVEKANANDA.
XII
C/O J. LYON,
262 MICHIGAN AVENUE, CHICAGO,
26th October, 1893.
DEAR ADHYAPAKJI (Prof. John Henry Wright),
You would be glad to know that I am doing well here and that
almost everybody has been very kind to me, except of course the
very orthodox. Many of the men brought together here from far-off
lands have got projects and ideas and missions to carry out, and
America is the only place where there is a chance of success for
everything. But I thought better and have given up speaking about
my project entirely - because I am sure now - the heathen draws
more than his project. So I want to go to work earnestly for my
own project only keeping the project in the background and working
like any other lecturer.
He who has brought me hither and has not left me yet will not
leave me ever I am here. You will be glad to know that I am doing
well and expect to do very well in the way of getting money. Of
course I am too green in the business but would soon learn my
trade. I am very popular in Chicago. So I want to stay here a
little more and get money.
Tomorrow I am going to lecture on Buddhism at the ladies'
fortnightly club - which is the most influential in this city. How
to thank you my kind friend or Him who brought you to me; for now
I think the success of my project probable, and it is you who have
made it so.
May blessings and happiness attend every step of your progress in
this world.
My love and blessings to your children.
Yours affectionately ever,
VIVEKANANDA.
XIII
541 DEARBORN AVENUE, CHICAGO,
19th November, 1893.
DEAR MRS. WOODS,
Excuse my delay in answering your letter. I do not know when I
will be able to see you again. I am starting tomorrow for Madison
and Minneapolis.
The English gentleman you speak of is Dr. Momerie of London. He is
a well-known worker amongst the poor of London and is a very sweet
man. You perhaps do not know that the English church was the only
religious denomination in the world who did not send to us a
representative, and Dr. Momerie came to the Parliament in spite of
the Archbishop of Canterbury's denouncing of the Parliament of
Religions.
My love for you, my kind friend, and your noble son is all the
same whether I write pretty often or not.
Can you express my books and the cover-all to the care of Mr.
Hale? I am in need of them. The express will be paid here.
The blessings of the Lord on you and yours.
Ever your friend,
VIVEKANANDA.
PS. If you have the occasion to write to Miss Sanborn and others
of our friends in the east, kindly give them my deepest respects.
Yours truly,
VIVEKANANDA.