Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda - Vol-7
XIV
DETROIT,
17th March, 1894.
DEAR SISTER (Miss Harriet McKindley of Chicago.),
Got your package yesterday. Sorry that you send those stockings -
I could have got some myself here. Glad that it shows your love.
After all, the satchel has become more than a thoroughly stuffed
sausage. I do not know how to carry it along.
I have returned today to Mrs. Bagley's as she was sorry that I
would remain so long with Mr. Palmer. Of course in Palmer's house
there was real "good time". He is a real jovial heartwhole fellow,
and likes "good time" a little too much and his "hot Scotch". But
he is right along innocent and childlike in his simplicity.
He was very sorry that I came away, but I could not help. Here is
a beautiful young girl. I saw her twice, I do not remember her
name. So brainy, so beautiful, so spiritual, so unworldly! Lord
bless her! She came this morning with Mrs. M'cDuvel and talked so
beautifully and deep and spiritually - that I was quite astounded.
She knows everything about the Yogis and is herself much advanced
in practice!!
"Thy ways are beyond searching out." Lord bless her - so innocent,
holy, and pure! This is the grandest recompense in my terribly
toilsome, miserable life - the finding of holy happy faces like
you from time to time. The great Buddhist prayer is, "I bow down
to all holy men on earth". I feel the real meaning of this prayer
whenever I see a face upon which the finger of the Lord has
written in unmistakable letters "mine". May you all be happy,
blessed, good and pure as you are for ever and ever. May your feet
never touch the mud and dirt of this terrible world. May you live
and pass away like flowers as you are born - is the constant
prayer of your brother.
VIVEKANANDA.
XV
DETROIT,
29th March, 1894.
DEAR BROTHER,
Your letter just reached me here. I am in a hurry, so excuse a few
points which I would take the liberty of correcting you in.
In the first place, I have not one word to say against any
religion or founder of religion in the world - whatever you may
think of our religion. All religions are sacred to me. Secondly,
it is a misstatement that I said that missionaries do not learn
our vernaculars. I still stick to my statement that few, if any,
of them pay any attention to Sanskrit; nor is it true that I said
anything against any religious body - except that I do insist on
my statement that India can never be converted to Christianity,
and further I deny that the conditions of the lower classes are
made any better by Christianity, and add that the majority of
southern Indian Christians are not only Catholics, but what they
call themselves, caste Christians, that is, they stick close to
their castes, and I am thoroughly persuaded that if the Hindu
society gives up its exclusive policy, ninety per cent of them
would rush back to Hinduism with all its defects.
Lastly, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for calling me
your fellow-countryman. This is the first time any European
foreigner, born in India though he be, has dared to call a
detested native by that name - missionary or no missionary. Would
you dare call me the same in India? Ask your missionaries, born in
India, to do the same - and those not born, to treat them as
fellow human beings. As to the rest, you yourself would call me a
fool if I admit that my religion or society submits to be judged
by strolling globe-trotters or story-writers' narratives.
My brother - excuse me - what do you know of my society or
religion, though born in India? It is absolutely impossible - the
society is so closed; and over and above, everyone judges from his
preconceived standard of race and religion, does he not? Lord
bless you for calling me a fellow-countryman. There may still come
a brotherly love and fellowship between the East and West.
Yours fraternally,
VIVEKANANDA.
XVI
NEW YORK,
25th April, 1894.
DEAR PROFESSOR (Prof. John Henry Wright),
I am very very grateful for your invitation. And will come on May
7th. As for the bed - my friend, your love and noble heart can
convert the stone into down.
I am sorry I am not going to the authors' breakfast at Salem.
I am coming home by May 7th.
Yours truly,
VIVEKANANDA.
XVII
NEW YORK,
26th April, 1894.
DEAR SISTER (Miss Isabelle McKindley.),
Your letter reached me yesterday. You were perfectly right - I
enjoyed the fun of the lunatic Interior, (Chicago Interior, a
Presbyterian newspaper which opposed Swamiji. - Ed.) but the mail
you sent yesterday from India was really, as Mother Church says in
her letter, a good news after a long interval. There is a
beautiful letter from Dewanji. The old man - Lord bless him -
offers as usual to help me. Then there was a little pamphlet
published in Calcutta about me - revealing that once at least in
my life the prophet has been honoured in his own country. There
are extracts from American and Indian papers and magazines about
me. The extracts printed from Calcutta papers were especially
gratifying, although the strain is so fulsome that I refuse to
send the pamphlet over to you. They call me illustrious,
wonderful, and all sorts of nonsense, but they forward me the
gratitude of the whole nation. Now I do not care what they even of
my own people say about me - except for one thing. I have an old
mother. She has suffered much all her life and in the midst of all
she could bear to give me up for the service of God and man; but
to have given up the most beloved of her children - her hope - to
live a beastly immoral life in a far distant country, as Mazoomdar
was telling in Calcutta, would have simply killed her. But the
Lord is great, none can injure His children.
The cat is out of the bag - without my seeking at all. And who do
you think is the editor of one of our leading papers which praise
me so much and thank God that I came to America to represent
Hinduism? Mazoomdar's cousin!! - Poor Mazoomdar - he has injured
his cause by telling lies through jealousy. Lord knows I never
attempted any defence.
I read the article of Mr. Gandhi in the Forum before this.
If you have got the Review of Reviews of last month - read to
mother the testimony about the Hindus in connection with the opium
question in India by one of the highest officials of the English
in India. He compares the English with the Hindus and lauds the
Hindu to the skies. Sir Lepel Griffin was one of the bitterest
enemies of our race. What made this change of front?
I had a very good time in Boston at Mrs. Breed's - and saw Prof.
Wright. I am going to Boston again. The tailor is making my new
gown. I am going to speak at Cambridge University [Harvard] and
would be the guest of Prof. Wright there. They write grand
welcomes to me in the Boston papers.
I am tired of all this nonsense. Towards the latter part of May I
will come back to Chicago, and after a few day's stay would come
back to the East again.
I spoke last night at the Waldorf hotel. Mrs. Smith sold tickets
at $2 each. I had a full hall which by the way was a small one. I
have not seen anything of the money yet. Hope to see in the course
of the day.
I made a hundred dollars at Lynn which I do not send because I
have to make my new gown and other nonsense.
Do not expect to make any money at Boston. Still I must touch the
brain of America and stir it up if I can.
Your loving brother,
VIVEKANANDA.
XVIII
NEW YORK,
2nd [actually 1st] May, 1894.
DEAR SISTER (Miss Isabelle McKindley.),
I am afraid I cannot send you the pamphlet just now. But I got a
little bit of a newspaper cutting from India yesterday which I
send you up. After you have read it kindly send it over to Mrs.
Bagley. The editor of this paper is a relative of Mr. Mazoomdar. I
am now sorry for poor Mazoomdar!! (The last two sentences were
written crosswise on the left margin.)
I could not find the exact orange colour of my coat here, so I
have been obliged to satisfy myself with the next best - a
cardinal red with more of yellow.
The coat will be ready in a few days.
Got about $70 the other day by lecturing at Waldorf. And hope to
get some more by tomorrow's lecture.
From 7th to 19th there are engagements in Boston, but they pay
very little.
Yesterday I bought a pipe for $13 - meerschaum do not tell it to
father Pope. The coat will cost $30. I am all right getting food .
. . and money enough. Hope very soon to put something in the bank
after the coming lecture.
. . . in the evening I am going to speak in a vegetarian dinner!
Well, I am a vegetarian . . ., because I prefer it when I can get
it. I have another invitation to lunch with Lyman Abbott day after
tomorrow. After all, I am having very nice time and hope to have
very nice time in Boston - only that nasty nasty lecturing -
disgusting. However as soon as 19th is over - one leap from Boston
. . . to Chicago . . . and then I will have a long long breath and
rest, rest for two three weeks. I will simply sit down and talk -
talk and smoke.
By the by, your New York people are very good - only more money
than brains.
I am going to speak to the students of the Harvard University.
Three lectures at Boston, three at Harvard - all arranged by Mrs.
Breed. They are arranging something here too, so that I will, on
my way to Chicago, come to New York once more - give them a few
hard raps and pocket the boodle and fly to Chicago.
If you want anything from New York or Boston which cannot be had
at Chicago - write sharp. I have plenty of dollars now. I will
send you over anything you want in a minute. Don't think it would
be indelicate anyway - no humbug about me. If I am a brother so I
am. I hate only one thing in the world - hypocrisy.
Your affectionate brother,
VIVEKANANDA.
XIX
NEW YORK,
4th May, 1894.
DEAR ADHYAPAKJI (Prof. John Henry Wright),
I have received your kind note just now. And it is unnecessary for
me to say that I will be very happy to do as you say.
I have also received Col. Higginson's letter. I will reply to him.
I will be in Boston on Sunday [May 6]. On Monday I lecture at the
Women's Club of Mrs. Howe.
Yours ever truly,
VIVEKANANDA.
XX
17 BEACON STREET, BOSTON,
May, 1894.
DEAR ADHYAPAKJI (Prof. John Henry Wright),
By this time you have got the pamphlet and the letters. If you
like, I would send you over from Chicago some letters from Indian
Princes and ministers - one of these ministers was one of the
Commissioners of the late opium commission that sat under Royal
Commission in India. If you like, I will have them write to you to
convince you of my not being a cheat. But, my brother, our ideal
of life is to hide, to suppress, and to deny.
We are to give up and not to take. Had I not the "Fad" in my head,
I would never have come over here. And it was with a hope that it
would help my cause that I joined the Parliament of Religions -
having always refused it when our people wanted to send me for it.
I came over telling them - "that I may or may not join that
assembly - and you may send me over if you like". They sent me
over leaving me quite free.
You did the rest.
I am morally bound to afford you every satisfaction, my kind
friend; but for the rest of the world I do not care what they say
- the Sannyasin must not have self-defence. So I beg of you not to
publish or show anybody anything in that pamphlet or the letters.
I do not care for the attempts of the old missionary; but the
fever of jealousy which attacked Mazoomdar gave me a terrible
shock, and I pray that he would know better - for he is a great
and good man who has tried all his life to do good. But this
proves one of my Master's sayings, "Living in a room covered with
black soot - however careful you may be - some spots must stick to
your clothes." So, however one may try to be good and holy, so
long he is in the world, some part of his nature must gravitate
downwards.
The way to God is the opposite to that of the world. And to few,
very few, are given to have God and mammon at the same time.
I was never a missionary, nor ever would be one - my place is in
the Himalayas. I have satisfied myself so far that I can with a
full conscience say, "My God, I saw terrible misery amongst my
brethren; I searched and discovered the way out of it, tried my
best to apply the remedy, but failed. So Thy will be done."
May his blessings be on you and yours for ever and ever.
Yours affectionately,
VIVEKANANDA.
541 DEARBORN AVE., CHICAGO
I go to Chicago tomorrow or day after.
Yours
V.
XXI
541 DEARBORN AVE.,
CHICAGO,
24th May, 1894.
DEAR ADHYAPAKJI (Prof. John Henry Wright),
Herewith I forward to you a letter from one of our ruling princes
of Rajputana, His Highness the Maharaja of Khetri, and another
from the opium commissioner, late minister of Junagad, one of the
largest states in India, and a man who is called the Gladstone of
India. These I hope would convince you of my being no fraud.
One thing I forgot to tell you. I never identified myself anyway
with Mr. Mazoomdar's party chief. (Evidently, Keshab Chandra Sen.)
If he says so, he does not speak the truth.
I hope, after your perusal, you will kindly send the letters over
to me, except the pamphlet which I do not care for.
I am bound, my dear friend, to give you every satisfaction of my
being a genuine Sannyasin, but to you alone. I do not care what
the rabbles say or think about me.
"Some would call you a saint, some a chandala; some a lunatic,
others a demon. Go on then straight to thy work without heeding
either" - thus saith one of our great Sannyasins, an old emperor
of India, King Bhartrihari, who joined the order in old times.
May the Lord bless you for ever and ever. My love to all your
children and my respects to your noble wife.
I remain ever your friend,
VIVEKANANDA.
PS. - I had connection with Pundit Shiva Nath Shastri's party -
but only on points of social reform. Mazoomdar and Chandra Sen - I
always considered as not sincere, and I have no reason to change
my opinion even now. Of course in religious matters even with my
friend Punditji I differed much, the chief being, I thinking
Sannyasa or (giving up the world) the highest ideal, and he, a
sin. So the Brahmo Samajists consider becoming a monk a sin!!
Yours,
V.
The Brahmo Samaj, like Christian Science in your country, spread
in Calcutta for a certain time and then died out. I am not sorry,
neither glad that it died. It has done its work - viz social
reform. Its religion was not worth a cent, and so it must die out.
If Mazoomdar thinks I was one of the causes of its death, he errs.
I am even now a great sympathiser of its reforms; but the "booby"
religion could not hold its own against the old "Vedanta". What
shall I do? Is that my fault? Mazoomdar has become childish in his
old age and takes to tactics not a whit better than some of your
Christian missionaries. Lord bless him and show him better
ways.
Yours,
VIVEKANANDA.
When are you going to Annisquam? My love to Austin and Bime. My
respects to your wife; and for you my love and gratitude is too
deep for expression.
Yours ever affectionately,
VIVEKANANDA.
XXII
541 DEARBORN AVENUE,
18th June, 1894.
DEAR ADHYAPAKJI (Prof. John Henry Wright),
Excuse my delay in sending the other letters; I could not find
them earlier. I am going to New York in a week.
I do not know whether I will come to Annisquam or not. The letters
need not be sent over to me until I write you again. Mrs. Bagley
seems to be unsettled by that article in the Boston paper against
me. She sent me over a copy from Detroit and has ceased
correspondence with me. Lord bless her. She has been very kind to
me.
Stout hearts like yours are not common, my brother. This is a
queer place - this world of ours. On the whole I am very very
thankful to the Lord for the amount of kindness I have received at
the hands of the people of this country - I, a complete stranger
here without even "credentials". Everything works for the best.
Yours ever in gratitude,
VIVEKANANDA.
PS. The East India stamps are for your children if they like.
XXIII
(Translated from Bengali)
U.S.A.
5th September, 1894.
DEAR MR. BHATTACHARYA (Mr. Manmatha Nath Bhattacharya),
I was much pleased to read your affectionate letter. I shall make
inquiries about the weaving machine as soon as I can, and let you
know. Now I am resting at Annisquam, a village on the seacoast;
soon I shall go to the city and attend to the matter of the
machine. These seaside places are filled with people during the
summer; some come to bathe in the sea, some to take rest, and some
to catch husbands.
There is a strong sense of decorum in this country.
You have to keep yourself always covered from neck to foot in the
presence of women. You cannot so much as mention the normal
functions of the body: nobody knows when anyone goes to the toilet
- one has to live so circumspectly. In this country, you can blow
your nose a thousand times into your handkerchief - there is no
harm in that; but it is highly uncivilised to belch. Women
sometimes are not embarrassed to expose their bodies above the
waist - you must have seen the kind of low-cut gown they wear -
but they say that to go bare-foot is as bad as being naked. Just
as we always dwell on the soul, so they take care of the body, and
there is no end to the cleaning and embellishing of it. One who
fails to do this has no place in society.
Our method of cooking with cow-dung fuel and eating on the floor
they consider eating like pigs: they say that the Hindus have no
sense of disgust and that, like pigs, they eat cow-dung. The word
"cow-dung" is taboo in English. On the other hand, numbers of
people will drink water with the same glass without thinking of
washing it, and they rarely observe the rule that things must be
washed before cooking. But should the clothes of the cook be a
little soiled, they will throw her out. The table-ware is all
spick and span. They are the richest people on earth; their
enjoyments and luxuries beggar description.
In Rajputana they imitate the Mohammedans in their mode of dining,
which is, on the whole, good. They sit on a low seat and place
their plate of rice on a low table. This is much better than
spreading a banana leaf on the earthen floor plastered with
cow-dung and filth. And how disastrous if the leaf gets torn! The
Hindus did not know much about clothes or food. Moreover, whatever
Hindu civilisation there was existed in the Punjab and the
north-west provinces. . . .
Our women lose caste if they put on shoes, but the Rajput women
lose their caste if they don't put on shoes! Says Manu: "One shall
always wear shoes". There is no denying that people should have a
decent enough standard of living. I say they should be neat and
clean even though not luxurious. . . . I say, why do we have to be
Englishmen? It is enough for the present if we imitate our
brothers of the western provinces. If group after group of Indians
travel all over the world and back for some years, the face of
India will be changed within twenty years by that alone; nothing
else need be done. But how will anything happen if the people of
one village do not visit the next? However, everything will take
place by and by. By and by, the stubborn Bengali boys will awaken
the country. But Manmatha Babu, you will have to stop this
shameful business of marrying off nine-year-old girls. That is the
root of all sins. It is a very great sin, my boy. Consider further
what a terrible thing it was that when the government wanted to
pass a law stopping early marriage, our worthless people raised a
tremendous howl! If we don't stop it ourselves, the government
will naturally intervene, and that is just what it wants to do.
All the world cries fie upon us. You remain shut up in your homes,
but the people outside spit upon you. How far can I quarrel with
them? What a horror - even a father and mother allow their
ten-year-old daughter to be given in marriage to a full-grown fat
husband! O Lord, is there any punishment unless there has been a
sin? It is all the fruit of Karma. If ours were not a terribly
sinful nation, then why should it have been booted and beaten for
seven hundred years?
Now, just as in our country the parents suffer a lot to have their
daughter married, here in the same way the girls suffer - the
parents only a little - it is the job of the girls to capture
husbands. I am now closely associated with them in all their
affairs; I am, as it were, a woman amongst women. Therefore, I
have seen, and am seeing, all their play. To give dinners, to
dance, to go to musical parties, go to the watering places - all
that is all right. But all the while the young women are scheming
within themselves how to capture husbands. They hang round the
boys. The boys, on the other hand, are so cautious that, though
they mingle with the girls and flirt with them all the time, when
it is time to surrender they run away. The boys place the girls
above themselves; they show them respect and slave for them; but
the moment the girls stretch their hands to catch them, they run
away beyond their reach. After many efforts of this kind, a girl
succeeds in capturing a boy. If the girl has money, then many a
boy dances attendance upon her, but the poor have great
difficulty. If a poor girl is exceedingly beautiful, she can marry
quickly; otherwise, she has to wait all her life. Just as in our
country, so here, one marriage in a thousand takes place through
love and courtship; the rest are based on money. After that,
quarrel, and then, 'Get out!' - divorce. We do not have this; the
only way out is to hang oneself. It is the same in all countries.
Only, here the girls take matters into their own hands; and in our
country, we get the help of the parents to give their married life
a decent appearance. The result is the same in either case.
Nowadays, however, American girls don't want to marry. During the
Civil War a large number of men were killed and women began to do
all kinds of work. Since then, they have not wanted to give up the
rights they have acquired. They earn their own living, and
therefore they say, "There is no use in marrying. If we truly fall
in love, then we shall marry; otherwise, we shall earn and meet
our own expenses". Even if the father is a millionaire, the son
has to earn enough before he marries. One may not marry depending
on an allowance from the father. The girls also want the same
thing now. When a son marries he becomes like a stranger to his
own family, but when a girl marries she brings her husband, as it
were, into her parents' home. Men will visit their wives' parents
ten times, but rarely go to their own parents. Yet they are very
much afraid of having their mothers-in-law on their neck.
In this country, there are rivers of wealth and waves of beauty,
and an abundance of knowledge everywhere. The country is very
healthy; they know how to enjoy this earth. . . . When princes of
Europe become poor they come to marry here. The average American
doesn't like this; but some rich, beautiful women fall for the
titles. Yet it is very difficult for American women to live in
Europe. The husbands of this country are slaves of their wives;
but the European wives are slaves to their husbands - this the
American women don't like. In everything, the men here have to
say, 'Yes dear'; otherwise the wives lose face before people.
The women in America are very sentimental and have a mania for
romance. I am, however, a strange sort of animal who hasn't any
romantic feeling, and therefore they could not sustain any such
feeling toward me and they show me great respect. I make all of
them call me "father" or "brother". I don't allow them to come
near me with any other feeling, and gradually they have all been
straightened out. . . .
The ministers in this country . . . are eager to throw sinners
into hell. A few of them are very good, however. . . . I have a
great reputation among the women in this country. I have not as
yet seen a single unchaste girl among the unmarried. It is either
a widow or a married woman who turn unchaste. The unmarried girls
are exceedingly good, because their future is bright. . . .
Those emaciated Western women, looking like old dried-up fruit,
whom you see in India, are English, and the English are an ugly
race amongst the Europeans. In America, the best blood strains of
Europe have been blended, and therefore, the American women are
very beautiful. And how they take care of their beauty! Can a
woman retain her beauty if she gives birth to children . . . every
hour from her tenth year on? Damn nonsense! What a terrible sin!
Even the most beautiful woman of our country will look like a
black owl here. Yet it must be admitted that the women of the
Punjab have very well-drawn features. Many of the American women
are very well educated and put many a learned professor to shame;
nor do they care for anyone's opinion. And as regards their
virtues: what kindness, what noble thought and action! Just think,
if a man of this country were to visit India, nobody would even
touch him; yet here I am allowed to do as I please in the houses
of the best families - like their own son! I am like a child;
their women shop for me, run errands for me. For example: I have
just written to a girl for information about the machine, which
she will gather carefully and send to me. Again, a phonograph was
sent to the Maharaj of Khetri: the girls managed the whole affair
very well. Lord! Lord! It is the difference between heaven and
hell! "They are the goddess Lakshmi in beauty and the goddess
Saraswati in talents and accomplishments." This cannot be achieved
through the study of books. I say, can you send out some men and
women to see the world? Only then will the country wake up - not
through the reading of books. The men here are very clever in
earning wealth. Where others do not see even dust, there they see
gold. Whoever will leave India and visit another country will earn
great merit.
Keeping aloof from the community of nations is the only cause for
the downfall of India. Since the English came, they have been
forcing you back into communion with other nations, and you are
visibly rising again. Everyone that comes out of the country
confers a benefit on the whole nation; for it is by doing that
alone that your horizon will expand. And as women cannot avail
themselves of this advantage, they have made almost no progress in
India. There is no station of rest; either you progress upwards or
you go back and die out. The only sign of life is going outward
and forward and expansion. Contraction is death. Why should you do
good to others? Because that is the only condition of life;
thereby you expand beyond your little self; you live and grow. All
narrowness, all contraction, all selfishness is simply slow
suicide, and when a nation commits the fatal mistake of
contracting itself and of thus cutting off all expansion and life,
it must die. Women similarly must go forward or become idiots and
soulless tools in the hands of their tyrannical lords. The
children are the result of the combination of the tyrant and the
idiot, and they are slaves. And this is the whole history of
modern India. Oh, who would break this horrible crystallisation of
death? Lord help us! (This paragraph was written in English.)
Gradually all this will come about: "One should cross a road
slowly and cautiously; one should patch a quilt carefully and
cautiously; so should one be slow and cautious in crossing a
mountain".
The papers have arrived duly and in good shape; there has not been
any difficulty about that. The enemy has been silenced. Consider
this: They have allowed me, an unknown young man, to live among
their grown-up young daughters, and when my own countryman,
Mazoomdar, says I am a rogue, they don't pay any attention! How
noble they are, and how kind! I shall not be able to repay this
debt even in a hundred lives, I am like a foster son to the
American women; they are really my mother. If they don't flourish
in every way, who would?
A while back several hundred intellectual men and women were
gathered in a place called Greenacre, and I was there for nearly
two months. Every day I would sit in our Hindu fashion under a
tree, and my followers and disciples would sit on the grass all
around me. Every morning I would instruct them, and how earnest
they were!
The whole country now knows me. The ministers are very angry; but,
naturally, not all of them. There are many followers of mine
amongst the learned ministers of this country. The ignorant and
the stubborn amongst them don't understand anything but only make
trouble, and thereby they only hurt themselves. But abusing me,
Mazoomdar has lost three-fourths of what little popularity he had
in this country. I have been adopted by them. When anyone abuses
me he is condemned everywhere by the women.
I cannot say when I shall return to India, possibly next winter.
There I shall have to wander, and here also I do the same.
There is nothing more to add. Please don't make this letter
public. You understand, I have to be careful about every word I
say - I am now a public man. Everybody is watching, particularly
the clergy.
Yours faithfully,
VIVEKANANDA.
XXIV
(Translated from Bengali)
U.S.A.
(November ?) 1894.
DEAR KALI [ABHEDANANDA],
Thanks for all that I come to know from your letter. I had no news
of the telegram in question having appeared in the Tribune. It is
six months since I left Chicago, and I have not been yet free to
return. So I could not keep myself well posted. You have taken
great pains indeed! And for this how can I thank you adequately?
You have all evinced a wonderful capacity for work. And how can
Shri Ramakrishna's words prove false? - You have got wonderful
spirit in you. About Shashi Sanyal, I have already written.
Nothing remains undetected, through the grace of Shri Ramakrishna.
But let him found a sect or whatever he will, what harm? "शिवा व:
सन्तु पन्थान: - May blessings attend your path!" Secondly, I could
not catch the drift of your letter. I shall collect my own funds
to build a monastery for ourselves, and if people criticise me for
it, I see nothing in this to affect us either way. You have your
minds pitched high and steady; it will do you no harm. May you
have exceeding love for one another among yourselves, and it would
be enough to have an attitude of indifference towards public
criticisms. Kalikrishna Babu has deep love for the cause and is a
great man. Please convey my special love to him. So long as there
is no feeling of disunion amongst you, through the grace of the
Lord, I assure you, there is no danger for you, "रणे वने
पर्वतमस्तके वा - be it in battle, in the forest, or on the top of
mountains". "श्रेयांसि बहुविघ्नानि - All noble undertakings are
fraught with obstacles". It is quite in the nature of things. Keep
up the deepest mental poise. Take not even the slightest notice of
what puerile creatures may be saying against you. Indifference,
indifference, indifference! I have already written to Shashi
(Ramakrishnananda) in detail. Please do not send newspapers and
tracts any more. "Take the husking hammer to heaven, and there it
will do its husking", as the Bengali saying goes. The same
trudging about here as it was in India, only with the carrying of
others' loads added! How can I procure customers for people's
books in this land? I am only one amongst the many here and
nothing more. Whatever the papers and things of that sort in this
country write about me, I make an offering of to the Fire-God. You
also do the same. That is the proper course.
A bit of public demonstration was necessary for Guru Maharaja's
work. It is done, and so far so good. Now you must on no account
pay any heed to what the rabble may be prattling about us. Whether
I make my pile or do whatever else I am reported to, shall the
opinions of the riff-raff stand in the way of His work? My dear
brother, you are yet a boy, while I am growing grey. What regard I
have for the pronouncements and opinions of such people, you
should guess from this. So long as you gird up your loins and
rally behind me, there is no fear even if the whole world combine
against us. This much I understand that I shall have to take up a
very lofty attitude, I should not, I think, write to anyone except
to you. By the by, where is Gunanidhi? Try to find him out and
bring him to the Math with all kindness. He is a very sincere man
and highly learned. You must try your best to secure two plots of
land, let people say what they will. Let anyone write anything for
or against me in the papers; you shouldn't take the slightest
notice. And my dear brother, I beseech you repeatedly not to send
me any more newspapers by the basketful. How can you talk of rest
now? We shall have rest awhile only when we give up this body.
Just do once get up the celebration, brother, in that spirit, so
that all the country around may burn with enthusiasm. Bravo!
Capital indeed! The whole band of scoffers will be swept away by
the tidal wave of love. You are elephants, forsooth, what do you
fear from an ant-bite?
The address (The Address presented by the citizens of Calcutta who
gathered at a meeting at the Town Hall on September 5, 1894, under
the Presidentship of Raja Pyari Mohan Mookherjee.) you sent me
reached me long ago and the reply to it has also been despatched
to Pyari Babu (18 Nov. 1894).
Bear in mind - the eyes are two in number and so the ears, but the
mouth is but one! Indifference, indifference, indifference! "न हि
कल्याणकृत्कश्चिद्दुर्गतिं तात् गच्छति - The doer of good deeds
never comes to grief, my dear". Ah! To fear! and whom are we going
to fear, brother? Here the missionaries and their ilk have howled
themselves into silence - and the whole world will but do
likewise.
"निन्दन्तु नीतिनिपुणा यदि वा स्तुवन्तु
लक्ष्मी समाविशतु गच्छतु वा यथेष्टम्।
अद्यैव वा मरणम्स्तु शतान्तरे वा
न्याय्यात्पथ: प्रविचलन्ति पदं न धीरा:॥
- Whether people skilled in policy praise or blame, whether the
Goddess of Fortune favours or goes her way, whether death befalls
today or after hundreds of years - persons of steady mind never
swerve from the path of righteousness" (Bhartrihari, Nitishataka)
You need not even mix with the humdrub people, nor beg of them
either. The Lord is supplying everything and will do so in future.
What fear, my brother? All great undertakings are achieved through
mighty obstacles. हे वीर, कुरु पौरुषमात्मन: उपेक्षितव्या जना:
सुकृपणा: कामकाञ्चनवशगा: - You valiant one, put forth your manly
efforts; wretched people under the grip of lust and gold deserve
to be looked upon with indifference. Now I have got a firm footing
in this country, and therefore need no assistance. But my one
prayer to you all is that you should apply to the service of the
Lord that active impulse of manliness which your eagerness to help
me through brotherly love has brought out in you. Do not open out
your mind, unless you feel it will be positively beneficial. Use
agreeable and wholesome language towards even the greatest enemy.
The desire for fame, for riches, for enjoyment is quite natural to
every mortal, dear brother, and if that agrees well with serving
both ways (i.e. serving both God and mammon), why, all men would
exhibit great zeal! It is only the great saint who can work,
making a mountain of an atom of virtue in others and cherishing no
desire but that of the good of the world - "परगुणपरमाणून्
पर्वतीकृत्य, त्रिभुवनमुपकारश्रेणीभि: प्रीणयन्त:" etc.,
(Bhartrihari, Nitishataka, 70). Therefore let dullards whose
intellect is steeped in ignorance and who look upon the non-Self
as all in all, play out their boyish pranks. They will of
themselves leave off the moment they find it too hot. Let them try
to spit upon the moon - it will but recoil upon themselves. शुभं
भवतु तेषाम् - Godspeed to them! If they have got anything
substantial in them, who can bar their success? But if it be only
empty swagger due to jealousy, then all will be in vain. Haramohan
has sent rosaries. All right. But you should know that religion of
the type that obtains in our country does not go here. You must
suit it to the taste of the people. If you ask them to become
Hindus, they will all give you a wide berth and hate you, as we do
the Christian missionaries. They like some of the ideas of the
Hindu scriptures - that is all. Nothing more than that, you should
know. The men, most of them, do not trouble about religion and all
that. The women are a little interested - that is all, but no
large doses of it! A few thousands of people have faith in the
Advaita doctrine. But they will give you the go-by if you talk
obscure mannerisms about sacred writings, caste, or women.
Everything proceeds slowly, by degrees. Patience, purity,
perseverance.
Yours etc.,
VIVEKANANDA.
XXV
(Translated from Bengali
U. S.A.,
1894.
DEAR BROTHER SHIVANANDA,
Your letter just reached me. Perhaps by this time you have
received my other letters and learnt that it is not necessary to
send anything to America any more. Too much of everything is bad.
This newspaper booming has given me popularity no doubt, but its
effect is more in India than here. Here, on the other hand,
constant booming creates a distaste in the minds of the higher
class people; so enough. Now try to organise yourselves in India
on the lines of these meetings. You need not send anything more in
this country. As to money, I have determined first to build some
place for Mother, (Holy Mother, Shri Sarada Devi.) for women
require it first. . . . I can send nearly Rs. 7,000 for a place
for Mother. If the place is first secured, then I do not care for
anything else. I hope to be able to get Rs. 1,600 a year from this
country even when I am gone. That sum I will make over to the
support of the Women's place, and then it will grow. I have
written to you already to secure a place. . . .
I would have, before this, returned to India, but India has no
money. Thousands honour Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, but nobody will
give a cent - that is India. . . . In the meanwhile live in
harmony at any price. The world cares little for principles. They
care for persons. They will hear with patience the words of a man
they like, however nonsense, and will not listen to anyone they do
not like. Think of this and modify your conduct accordingly.
Everything will come all right. Be the servant if you will rule.
That is the real secret. Your love will tell even if your words be
harsh. Instinctively men feel the love clothed in whatever
language. (These two paragraphs and the last half of the fourth
were written in English.)
My dear brother, that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was God incarnate, I
have not the least doubt; but then you must let people find out
for themselves what he used to teach - you cannot thrust these
things upon them - this is my only objection.
Let people speak out their own opinions, why should we object?
Without studying Ramakrishna Paramahamsa first, one can never
understand the real import of the Vedas, the Vedanta, of the
Bhâgavata and the other Purânas. His life is a searchlight of
infinite power thrown upon the whole mass of Indian religious
thought. He was the living commentary to the Vedas and to their
aim. He had lived in one life the whole cycle of the national
religious existence in India.
Whether Bhagavân Shri Krishna was born at all we are not sure; and
Avataras like Buddha and Chaitanya are monotonous; Ramakrishna
Paramahamsa is the latest and the most perfect - the concentrated
embodiment of knowledge, love, renunciation, catholicity, and the
desire to serve mankind. So where is anyone to compare with him?
He must have been born in vain who cannot appreciate him! My
supreme good fortune is that I am his servant through life after
life. A single word of his is to me far weightier than the Vedas
and the Vedanta. तस्य दासदासदासोऽहम् - Oh, I am the servant of the
servants of his servants. But narrow bigotry militates against his
principles, and this makes me cross. Rather let his name be
drowned in oblivion, and his teachings bear fruit instead! Why,
was he a slave to fame? Certain fishermen and illiterate people
called Jesus Christ a God, but the literate people killed him.
Buddha was honoured in his lifetime by a number of merchants and
cowherds. But Ramakrishna has been worshipped in his lifetime -
towards the end of this nineteenth century - by the demons and
giants of the university as God incarnate. . . . Only a few things
have been jotted down in the books about them (Krishna, Buddha,
Christ, etc.). "One must be a wonderful housekeeper with whom we
have never yet lived!" so the Bengali proverb goes. But here is a
man in whose company we have been day and night and yet consider
him to be a far greater personality than any of them. Can you
understand this phenomenon?
You have not yet understood the wonderful significance of Mother's
life - none of you. But gradually you will know. Without Shakti
(Power) there is no regeneration for the world. Why is it that our
country is the weakest and the most backward of all countries? -
Because Shakti is held in dishonour there. Mother has been born to
revive that wonderful Shakti in India; and making her the nucleus,
once more will Gârgis and Maitreyis be born into the world. Dear
brother, you understand little now, but by degrees you will come
to know it all. Hence it is her Math that I want first. . . .
Without the grace of Shakti nothing is to be accomplished. What do
I find in America and Europe? - the worship of Shakti, the worship
of Power. Yet they worship Her ignorantly through
sense-gratification. Imagine, then, what a lot of good they will
achieve who will worship Her with all purity, in a Sattvika
spirit, looking upon Her as their mother! I am coming to
understand things clearer every day, my insight is opening out
more and more. Hence we must first build a Math for Mother. First
Mother and Mother's daughters, then Father and Father's sons - can
you understand this? . . . To me, Mother's grace is a hundred
thousand times more valuable than Father's. Mother's grace,
Mother's blessings are all paramount to me. . . . Please pardon
me. I am a little bigoted there, as regards Mother. If but Mother
orders, her demons can work anything. Brother, before proceeding
to America I wrote to Mother to bless me. Her blessings came, and
at one bound I cleared the ocean. There, you see. In this terrible
winter I am lecturing from place to place and fighting against
odds, so that funds may be collected for Mother's Math. Baburam's
mother must have lost her sense owing to old age and that is why
she is about to worship Durga in the earthen image, ignoring the
living one. (Viz. Holy Mother Shri Sarada Devi.) Brother, faith is
very difficult to achieve. Brother, I shall show how to worship
the living Durga and then only shall I be worthy of my name. I
shall be relieved when you will have purchased a plot of land and
established there the living Durga, the Mother. Till then I am not
returning to my native land. As soon as you can do that, I shall
have a sigh of relief after sending the money. Do you accomplish
this festival of Durga of mine by making all the necessary
arrangements. Girish Ghosh is adoring the Mother splendidly;
blessed is he, and blessed are his followers. Brother, often
enough, when I am reminded of the Mother, I ejaculate, "What after
all is Rama?" Brother, that is where my fanaticism lies, I tell
you. Of Ramakrishna, you may aver, my brother, that he was an
Incarnation or whatever else you may like but fie on him who has
no devotion for the Mother. Niranjan has a militant disposition,
but he has great devotion for Mother and all his vagaries I can
easily put up with. He is now doing the most marvellous work. I am
keeping myself well posted. And you too have done excellently in
co-operating with the Madrasis. Dear brother, I expect much from
you, you should organise all for conjoint work. As soon as you
have secured the land for Mother, I go to India straight. It must
be a big plot; let there be a mud-house to begin with, in due
course I shall erect a decent building, don't be afraid.
The chief cause of malaria lies in water. Why do you not construct
two or three filters? If you first boil the water and then filter
it, it will be harmless. . . . Please buy two big Pasteur's
bacteria-proof filters. Let the cooking be done in that water and
use it for drinking purposes also, and you will never hear of
malaria any more. . . . On and on, work, work, work, this is only
the beginning.
Yours ever,
VIVEKANANDA.
XXVI
(Translated from Bengali)
Salutation to Bhagavan Ramakrishna!
1894.
DEAR AND BELOVED (Swami Brahmananda.),
. . . Well, do you think there is any religion left in India! The
paths of knowledge, devotion, and Yoga - all have gone, and now
there remains only that of Don't touchism - "Don't touch me! Don't
touch me!" The whole world is impure, and I alone am pure. Lucid
Brahmajnâna! Bravo! Great God! Nowadays Brahman is neither in the
recesses of the heart, nor in the highest heaven, nor in all
beings - now He is in the cooking-pot. Formerly the characteristic
of a noble-minded man was "त्रिभुवनमुपकारश्रेणिभिः प्रीणयन्त: -
Pleasing the whole universe by one's numerous acts of service" but
now it is - I am pure and the whole world is impure - go and get
money and set it at my feet. . . . Tell the sapient sage who
writes to me to finish my preaching work here and return home . .
. that this country is more my home. What is there in Hindusthan?
Who appreciates religion? Who appreciates learning?
To return home! Where is the home! I do not care for liberation,
or for devotion, I would rather go to a hundred thousand hells,
"वसन्तवल्लोकहितं चरन्त: - Doing good to others (silently) like the
spring" - this is my religion. I do not want to have any
connection with lazy, hard-hearted, cruel and selfish men. He
whose good fortune it is, may help in this great cause.
. . . Please convey to all my love, I want the help of everyone.
Neither money pays, nor name, nor fame, nor learning; it is
character that can cleave through adamantine walls of
difficulties. Bear this in mind. . . .
Ever yours in love,
VIVEKANANDA.
XXVII
1895.
DEAR ALASINGA,
We have no organisation, nor want to build any. Each one is quite
independent to teach, quite free to preach whatever he or she
likes.
If you have the spirit within, you will never fail to attract
others. Theosophists' method can never be ours, for the very
simple reason that they are an organised sect, we are not.
Individuality is my motto. I have no ambition beyond training
individuals up. I know very little; that little I teach without
reserve; where I am ignorant, I confess it as such, and never am I
so glad as when I find people being helped by Theosophists,
Christians, Mohammedans, or anybody in the world. I am a
Sannyasin; as such I consider myself as a servant, not as a master
in the world. . . . If people love me, they are welcome, if they
hate, they are also welcome.
Each one will have to save himself, each one to do his own work. I
seek no help, I reject none. Nor have I any right in the world to
be helped. Whosoever has helped me or will help, it will be their
mercy to me, not my right, and as such I am eternally grateful.
When I became a Sannyasin, I consciously took the step, knowing
that this body would have to die of starvation. What of that, I am
a beggar. My friends are poor, I love the poor, I welcome poverty.
I am glad that I sometimes have to starve. I ask help of none.
What is the use? Truth will preach itself, it will not die for the
want of the helping hands of me! "Making happiness and misery the
same, making success and failure the same, fight thou on" (Gita).
It is that eternal love, unruffled equanimity under all
circumstances, and perfect freedom from jealousy or animosity that
will tell. That will tell, nothing else.
Yours,
VIVEKANANDA.
XXVIII
54 W. 33 NEW YORK,
25th April, 1895.
DEAR BROTHER (To Dr. I. Janes.),
I was away in the Catskill mountains and it was almost impossible
to get a letter regularly posted from where I was - so accept my
apology for the delay in offering you my most heartfelt thanks for
your letter in the "Eagle".
It was so scholarly, truthful and noble and withal so permeated
with your natural universal love for the good and true everywhere.
It is a great work to bring this world into a spirit of sympathy
with each other but it should be done no doubt when such brave
souls as you still hold your own. Lord help you ever and ever my
brother and may you live long to carry on the mighty work you and
your society has undertaken.
With my gratitude and love to you and to the members of the
Ethical Society.
I remain Yours ever truly,
VIVEKANANDA.
XXIX
54 W. 33 NEW YORK, May, 1895.
DEAR __,
Since writing to you my pupils have come round me with help, and
the classes will go on nicely now no doubt.
I was so glad at it because teaching has become a part of my life,
as necessary to my life as eating or breathing.
Yours,
VIVEKANANDA.
PS. I saw a lot of things about __ in an English paper, the
Borderland. __ is doing good work in India, making the Hindus,
very much to appreciate their own religion. . . . I do not find
any scholarship in __'s writing, . . . nor do I find any
spirituality whatever. However Godspeed to anyone who wants to do
good to the world.
How easily this world can be duped by humbugs and what a mass of
fraud has gathered over the devoted head of poor humanity since
the dawn of civilisation.
XXX
(Translated from Bengali)
19 WEST 38th STREET,
NEW YORK,August, 1895.
BELOVED RAKHAL,
. . . I am now in New York City. The city is hot in summer,
exactly like Calcutta. You perspire profusely, and there is not a
breath of air. I made a tour in the north for a couple of months.
Please answer this letter by return of post to England, for which
I shall start before this will have reached you.
Yours affectionately,
VIVEKANANDA.
XXXI
U.S.A.
March, 1896.
DEAR ALASINGA,
Last week I wrote you about the Brahmavâdin. I forgot to write
about the Bhakti lectures. They ought to be published in a book
all together. A few hundreds may be sent to America to Goodyear in
New York. Within twenty days I sail for England. I have other big
books on Karma, Jnana, and Raja Yogas - the Karma is out already,
the Raja will be a very big book and is already in the Press. The
Jnana will have to be published, I think, in England.
A letter you published from Kripananda in the Brahmavadin was
rather unfortunate. Kripananda is smarting under the blows the
Christians have given him and that sort of letter is vulgar,
pitching into everybody. It is not in accord with the tone of the
Brahmavadin. So in future when Kripananda writes, tone down
everything that is an attack upon any sect, however cranky or
crude. Nothing which is against any sect, good or bad, should get
into the Brahmavadin. Of course, we must not show active sympathy
with frauds. Again let me remind you that the paper is too
technical to find any subscriber here. The average Western neither
knows nor cares to know all about jaw-breaking Sanskrit terms and
technicalities. The paper is well fitted for India - that I see.
Every word of special pleading should be eliminated from the
Editorials, and you must always remember that you are addressing
the whole world, not India alone, and that the same world is
entirely ignorant of what you have got to tell them. Use the
translation of every Sanskrit term carefully and make things as
easy as possible.
Before this reaches you I will be in England. So address me c/o E.
T. Sturdy, Esq., High View, Caversham, Eng.
Yours etc.,
VIVEKANANDA.
XXXII
(Translated from Bengali)
HIGH VIEW, CAVERSHAM,
READING,
27th April, 1896.
DEAR (Members of the Alambazar Math),
. . . Let me write something for you all. It is not for gaining
personal authority that I do this, but for your good and for
fulfilling the purpose for which the Lord came. He gave me the
charge of you all, and you shall contribute to the great
well-being of the world - though most of you are not yet aware of
it - this is the special reason of my writing to you. It will be a
great pity if any feeling of jealousy or egotism gain ground
amongst you. Is it possible for those to establish cordial
relations on earth who cannot cordially live with one another for
any length of time? No doubt it is an evil to be bound by laws,
but it is necessary at the immature stage to be guided by rules;
in other words, as the Master used to say that the sapling must be
hedged round, and so on. Secondly, it is quite natural for idle
minds to indulge in gossip, and faction-mongering, and so forth.
Hence I jot down the following hints. If you follow them, you will
undoubtedly prosper, but if you don't do so, then there is a
danger of all our labours coming to naught.
First let me write about the management of the Math:
1. For the purposes of the Math please hire a commodious house or
garden, where everyone may have a small room to himself. There
must be a spacious hall where the books may be kept, and a smaller
room for meeting the visitors. If possible, there should be
another big hall in the house where study of the scriptures and
religious discourses will be held every day for the public.
2. Anyone wishing to visit anybody in the Math should see him only
and depart, without troubling others.
3. By turns someone should be present in the hall for a few hours
every day for the public, so that they may get satisfactory
replies to what they come to ask.
4. Everyone must keep to his room and except on special business
must not go to others' rooms. Anyone who wishes may go to the
Library and read, but it should be strictly forbidden to smoke
there or talk with others. The reading should be silent.
5. It shall be wholly forbidden to huddle together in a room and
chat the whole day away, with any number of outsiders coming and
joining in the hubbub.
6. Only those that are seekers after religion may come and
peacefully wait in the Visitors' Hall and when they have seen the
particular persons they want, they should depart. Or, if they have
any general question to ask, they should refer to the person in
charge of that function for the day and leave.
7. Tale-bearing, caballing, or reporting scandals about others
should be altogether eschewed.
8. A small room should serve as the office. The Secretary should
live in that room, which should contain paper, ink, and other
materials for letter-writing. He should keep an account of the
income and expenditure. All correspondence should come to him, and
he should deliver all letters unopened to their addressees. Books
and pamphlets should be sent to the Library.
9. There will be a small room for smoking, which should not be
indulged in outside this room.
10. He who wants to indulge in invectives or show temper must do
so outside the boundaries of the Math. This should not be deviated
from even by an inch.
THE GOVERNING BODY
1. Every year a President should be elected by a majority of
votes. The next year, another, and so on.
2. For this year make Brahmananda the President and likewise make
another the Secretary, and elect a third man for superintending
the worship etc., as well as the arrangement of food.
3. The Secretary shall have another function, viz to keep watch
over the general health. Regarding this I have three instructions
to give:
(i) In every room for each man there shall
be a Nair charpoy, mattress, etc. Everyone must keep his room
clean.
(ii) All arrangements must be made to provide
clear and pure water for drinking and cooking purposes, for it is
a deadly sin to cook sacramental food in impure or unclean water.
(iii) Give everyone two ochre cloaks of the type that
you have made for Saradananda, and see that clothing is kept
clean.
4. Anyone wishing to be a Sannyâsin should be admitted as a
Brahmacharin first. He should live one year at the Math and one
year outside, after which he may be initiated into Sannyâsa.
5. Make over charge of the worship to one of these Brahmacharins,
and change them now and then.
DEPARTMENTS
There shall be the following departments in the Math:
I. Study. II. Propaganda. III. Religious Practice.
I. Study - The object of this department is to provide books
and teachers for those who want to study. Every morning and
evening the teachers should be ready for them.
II. Propaganda - Within the Math, and abroad. The preachers in the
Math should teach the inquirers by reading out scriptures to them
and by means of question-classes. The preachers abroad will preach
from village to village and try to start Maths like the above in
different places.
III. Religious Practice - This department will try to provide
those who want to practise with the requisites for this. But it
should not be allowed that because one has taken to religious
practice he will prevent others from study or preaching. Any one
infringing this rule shall be immediately asked to clear out, and
this is imperative.
The preachers at home should give lessons on devotion, knowledge,
Yoga, and work by turns; for this, the days and hours should be
fixed, and the routine hung up at the door of the class-room. That
is to say, a seeker after devotion may not present himself on the
day fixed for knowledge and feel wounded thereby; and so on.
None of you are fit for the Vâmâchâra form of practice. Therefore
this should on no account be practised at the Math. Anyone
demurring to this must step out of this Order. This form of
practice must never even be mentioned in the Math. Ruin shall
seize the wicked man, both here and hereafter, who would introduce
vile Vamachara into His fold!
SOME GENERAL REMARKS
1. If any woman comes to have a talk with a Sannyasin, she should
do it in the Visitors' Hall. No woman shall be allowed to enter
any other room - except the Worship-room.
2. No Sannyasin shall be allowed to reside in the Women's Math.
Anyone refusing to obey this rule shall be expelled from the Math.
"Better an empty fold than a wicked herd."
3. Men of evil character shall be rigorously kept out. On no
pretence shall their shadow even cross the threshold of my room.
If anyone amongst you become wicked, turn him out at once, whoever
he be. We want no black sheep. The Lord will bring lots of good
people.
4. Any woman can come to the class-room (or preaching hall) during
class time or preaching hour, but must leave the place directly
when that period is over.
5. Never show temper, or harbour jealousy, or backbite another in
secret. It would be the height of cruelty and hard-heartedness to
take note of others' shortcoming instead of rectifying one's own.
6. There should be fixed hours of meals. Everyone must have a seat
and a low dining table. He will sit on the former and put his
plate on the latter, as is the custom in Rajputana.
THE OFFICE-BEARERS
All the office-bearers you should elect by ballot, as was the
mandate of Lord Buddha. That is to say, one should propose that
such and such should be the President this year; and all should
write on bits of paper 'yes' or 'no' and put them in a pitcher. If
the 'yes' have a majority, he should be elected President, and so
on. Though you should elect office-bearers in this way, yet I
suggest that this year Brahmananda should be President,
Nirmalananda, Secretary and Treasurer, Sadananda Librarian, and
Ramakrishnananda, Abhedananda, Turiyananda, and Trigunatitananda
should take charge of the teaching and preaching work by turns,
and so on.
It is no doubt a good idea that Trigunatita has of starting a
magazine. But I shall consent to it if only you can work jointly.
About doctrines and so forth I have to say only this, that if
anyone accepts Paramahamsa Deva as Avatâra etc., it is all right;
if he doesn't do so, it is just the same. The truth about it is
that in point of character, Paramahamsa Deva beats all previous
records; and as regards teaching, he was more liberal, more
original, and more progressive than all his predecessors. In other
words, the older Teachers were rather one-sided, while the
teaching of this new Incarnation or Teacher is that the best point
of Yoga, devotion, knowledge, and work must be combined now so as
to form a new society. . . . The older ones were no doubt good,
but this is the new religion of this age - the synthesis of Yoga,
knowledge, devotion, and work - the propagation of knowledge and
devotion to all, down to the very lowest, without distinction of
age or sex. The previous Incarnations were all right, but they
have been synthesised in the person of Ramakrishna. For the
ordinary man and the beginner, steady devotion (Nishthâ) to an
ideal is of paramount importance. That is to say, teach them that
all great Personalities should be duly honoured, but homage should
be paid now to Ramakrishna. There can be no vigour without steady
devotion. Without it one cannot preach with the intensity of a
Mahâvira (Hanumân). Besides, the previous ones have become rather
old. Now we have a new India, with its new God, new religion, and
new Vedas. When, O Lord, shall our land be free from this eternal
dwelling upon the past? Well, a little bigotry also is a
necessity. But we must harbour no antagonistic feelings towards
others.
If you consider it wise to be guided by my ideas and if you follow
these rules, then I shall supply on all necessary funds. . . .
Moreover, please show this letter to Gour-Mâ, Yogin-Mâ, and
others, and through them establish a Women's Math. Let Gour-Ma be
the President there for one year, and so on. But none of you shall
be allowed to visit the place. They will manage their own affairs.
They will not have to work at your dictation. I shall supply all
necessary expenses for that work also.
May the Lord guide you in the right direction! Two persons went to
see the Lord Jagannatha. One of them beheld the Deity - while the
other saw some trash that was haunting his mind! My friends, many
have no doubt served the Master, but whenever anyone would be
disposed to consider himself an extraordinary personage, he should
think that although he was associated with Shri Ramakrishna, he
has seen only the trash that was uppermost in his mind! Were it
not so, he would manifest the results. The Master himself used to
quote, "They would sing and dance in the name of the Lord but come
to grief in the end." The root of that degeneration is egotism -
to think that one is just as great as any other, indeed! "He used
to love me too!" - one would plead. Alas, Nick Bottom, would you
then be thus translated? Would such a man envy or quarrel with
another and degrade himself? Bear in mind that through His grace
lots of men will be turned out with the nobility of gods - ay,
wherever His mercy would drop! . . . Obedience is the first duty.
Well, just do with alacrity what I ask you to. Let me see how you
carry out these few small things. Then gradually great things will
come to pass.
Yours,
VIVEKANANDA.
PS. Please read the contents of this letter to all, and let me
know whether you consider the suggestions worth carrying out.
Please tell Brahmananda that he who is the servant of all is their
true master. He never becomes a leader in whose love there is a
consideration of high or low. He whose love knows no end, and
never stops to consider high or low, has the whole world lying at
his feet.
V.
XXXIII
63 ST. GEORGE'S ROAD, LONDON,
May, 1896.
DEAR SISTER,
In London once more. The climate now in England is nice and cool.
We have fire in the grate. We have a whole house to ourselves, you
know, this time. It is small but convenient, and in London they do
not cost so much as in America. Don't you know what I was thinking
- about your mother! I just wrote her a letter and duly posted it
to her, care of Monroe & Co., 7 Rue Scribe, Paris. Some old
friends are here, and Miss MacLeod came over from the Continent.
She is good as gold, and as kind as ever. We have a nice little
family, in the house, with another monk from India. Poor man! - a
typical Hindu with nothing of that pluck and go which I have, he
is always dreamy and gentle and sweet! That won't do. I will try
to put a little activity into him. I have had two classes already
- they will go on for four or five months and after that to India
I go. But it is to Amerique - there where the heart is. I love the
Yankee land. I like to see new things. I do not care a fig to loaf
about old ruins and mope a life out about old histories and keep
sighing about the ancients. I have too much vigour in my blood for
that. In America is the place, the people, the opportunity for
everything. I have become horribly radical. I am just going to
India to see what I can do in that awful mass of conservative
jelly-fish, and start a new thing, entirely new - simple, strong,
new and fresh as the first born baby. The eternal, the infinite,
the omnipresent, the omniscient is a principle, not a person. You,
I, and everyone are but embodiments of that principle, and the
more of this infinite principle is embodied in a person, the
greater is he, and all in the end will be the perfect embodiment
of that and thus all will be one as they are now essentially. This
is all there is of religion, and the practice is through this
feeling of oneness that is love. All old fogy forms are mere old
superstitions. Now, why struggle to keep them alive? Why give
thirsty people ditch-water to drink whilst the river of life and
truth flows by? This is only human selfishness, nothing else. Life
is short - time is flying - that place and people where one's
ideas work best should be the country and the people for everyone.
Ay, for a dozen bold hearts, large, noble, and sincere!
I am very well indeed and enjoying life immensely.
Yours ever with love,
VIVEKANANDA.
XXXIV
(Translated from Bengali)
C/O E. T. STURDY, ESQ.
HIGH VIEW, CAVERSHAM, READING,
May (?) 1896.
DEAR SHASHI (RAMAKRISHNANANDA),
. . . This City of London is a sea of human heads - ten or fifteen
Calcuttas put together. One is apt to be lost in the mazes unless
he arranges for somebody to meet him on arrival. . . . However,
let Kali start at once. If he be late in starting like Sharat,
better let no one come. It won't do to loiter and procrastinate
like that. It is a task that requires the height of Rajas
(activity). . . . Our whole country is steeped in Tamas, and
nothing but that. We want Rajas first, and Sattva will come
afterwards - a thing far, far removed.
Yours affectionately,
VIVEKANANDA.