Reminiscences

REMINISCENCES OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
Dr. ANNIE BESANT

(Represenative of Theosophy at the Parliament of Religion.)

A striking figure, clad in yellow and orange, shining like the sun of India in the midst of the heavy atmosphere of Chicago, a lion head, piercing eyes, mobile lips, movements swift and abrupt — such was my first impression of Swami Vivekananda, as I met him in one of the rooms set apart for the use of the delegates to the Parliament of Religions. Off the platform, his figure was instinct with pride of country, pride of race — the representative of the oldest of living religions, surrounded by curious gazers of nearly the youngest religion. India was not to be shamed before the hurrying arrogant West by this her envoy and her son. He brought her message, he spoke in her name, and the herald remembered the dignity of the royal land whence he came. Purposeful, virile, strong, he stood out, a man among men, able to hold his own.

On the platform another side came out. The dignity and the inborn sense of worth and power still were there, but all was subdued to the exquisite beauty of the spiritual message which he had brought, to the sublimity of that matchless truth of the East which is the heart and the life of India, the wondrous teaching of the Self. Enraptured, the huge multitude hung upon his words; not a syllable must be lost, not a cadence missed! “That man, a heathen!” said one, as he came out of the great hall, “and we send missionaries to his people! It would be more fitting that they should send missionaries to us!”

Courtesy: Frank Parlato Jr.

REMINISCENCES OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
SWAMI TURIYANANDA

Sri Ramakrishna did not allow everybody to practice the nondual aspect of meditation. What good is it to proclaim that you are one with the Absolute unless the universe has vanished from your consciousness? Sri Ramakrishna used to say: “You may say that there is no thorn, but put your hand out — the thorn will prick, and your hand will bleed.” But with regard to Swamiji, Sri Ramakrishna said, “If Naren says that there is no thorn, there is no thorn; and if he puts out his hand no thorn would prick it, because he has experienced his unity with Brahman.” When Swamiji used to say, “I am He,” he said so from his direct perception of the Absolute. His mind was not identified with his physical self.

At the Baranagore Monastery we used to study scriptures and philosophy a lot. Swami Abhedananda particularly engaged himself in much study. Swamiji did too and also meditated many hours. We all practiced great austerities. Sri Ramakrishna made us do it. Then we attained the bliss of liberation while living through the Master’s grace. Free as the air we have lived — depending on none, feeling no lack, without cravings, fearless! Yes, we know the joy of liberation! We used to wander from place to place, depending entirely on the Lord. We would beg for alms when we were very hungry. Wherever it got dark we made our home. What freedom!

Swami Abhedananda used to avoid all types of work. He would shut himself in a room and engage himself in study and meditation. He used to say that he did not wish to work. Sometimes he would observe complete silence and not talk for days on end. Some of us used to be angry with him for that. But Swamiji said: “You people are jealous! You can’t bear that somebody is doing something to improve himself. He is not lazily idling his time away. What if he doesn’t work! Never mind, you don’t have to work either! I’ll do everything!”

Swamiji said at one time: “As long as you have been born on this earth, leave an impression on it.” At the Baranagore Math he remarked: “Our names will be recorded in history!” Swami Yogananda and some other brother-disciples made fun of him. Swamiji retorted: “You will see if I am right or not! Vedanta is the only religion convincing to all. If you don’t listen to me, I will go to the quarter of the untouchables and teach them Vedanta!”

In one of his letters Swamiji wrote: “When I go for alms, I give people something in return.” Give and take — that is the motto for a monk. Monks who live only for themselves and don’t even practice spiritual disciplines are impostors.

We have seen Swamiji meditate the whole night, then early in the morning he would take his bath; and people did not know anything about his austerities. I never saw Swamiji sitting idly; he either studied or conversed on God or meditated.

One day Swami Shivananda sang a devotional song to Sri Krishna. While listening, I began to weep and went into ecstasy, and Swamiji did too.

Ah, what a wonderful spirit of self-surrender Swamiji had! When he was seriously ill at Rishikesh and we, his brother-disciples, were watching over him, sad at heart, he said: “Mother, if it is your will, let me die.”

“What is known as the nondual Brahman in the Upanishads is a ray of light from His Body.” [A Vaishnava saying.] This is sectarianism. Swamiji used to make fun of this kind of attitude.

“A doer of good never comes to grief.” The spiritual struggles that you undergo are never in vain. Even if you do not attain the highest in this life, you carry your spiritual gain with you to the next life. Don’t you see that there are people who from childhood are devoted to God and live without worldly cravings? On the other hand, there are some who may be learned but live like worms in filth. Without the control of lust nothing can be achieved. Look at Swamiji! What was his power? He was free from lust. He lived among beautiful women, yet there was dispassion in his heart.”

While we were in Meerut with Swamiji, a number of devotees came to visit us. Swamiji asked me to speak to them. Although they were householders, I stressed the ideal of renunciation and dispassion. After they left, Swamiji said to me: “Brother Hari, do you think everybody is like you? Can everyone let the Divine Mother dwell constantly within the lotus of his heart? Let these people keep forgetful a little while longer and enjoy life.”

Swamiji once said, “At the age of twenty-nine I finished everything.”

Swamiji used to quote the Bible: “My God is a jealous God.” If you are attached to anything or anyone else and do not renounce all for him, you cannot find him.”

Do you know why I was so successful in America? Swamiji spoke highly of me to some of the people there, and so naturally they had faith in me. When someone believes in you, you must live in such a way as to increase that person’s faith. Otherwise, disastrous results may follow.

Whenever Swamiji used the pronoun “I,” he was identified with Brahman and used the word from the nondualistic standpoint.

Whenever Swamiji used the pronoun “I,” he was referring the universal Self. When we say “I,” we are identified with the little self — with the body, mind, and senses. Hence we should think of ourselves as servants and devotees of the Lord. The very utterance of the word “I,” would take Swamiji beyond body, mind, and senses. This was his normal state of consciousness. But this mood, “I am he,” is not possible for us. So we have to say, “Thou and Thou alone,” in order that we may forget the little self and be united with the universal Self.

There are some great souls who live in that indivisible, changeless Time. To them this whole universe appears momentary and unreal. Swamiji dwelt in that state much of the time. But you see, we normally live on this relative plane. Maya is such that though you drive it away, it comes back.

What we have seen in Swamiji! During his last days, when he was hardly able to breathe, he would still roar: “Arise! Awake!”

To live the ideal life is our only purpose. The truth of the Upanishads is to be attained. The Truth is, and it must be realized in one’s own Self. Swamiji did that. Of course, the one Truth is perceived in many ways, according to the capacity of the individual.

Swamiji surely has not merged himself in eternal union with Brahman. He is an ever-free soul. He will be born again and again to do the work of the Lord.

The Master told Swamiji: “Whenever you begin to sing, the Mother wakes up and listens to your song.”

Weak-minded people cannot control their spiritual emotions; their nerves become overstimulated. But those who have a strong body and strong nerves control their emotions. When Swamiji’s spiritual emotions were aroused, outwardly he would be calm.

One day, in Madras at the Castle Kernan, Swamiji was singing a hymn to Sri Rama. After a while his gaze became fixed, he went into ecstasy, and tears of joy began to flow.

Swamiji was not only a knower of Brahman but he was a great yogi. His spiritual powers were obtained through yoga. Was anyone more perfect than he in meditation?

Prejudiced people will listen only to one side of a story. Swamiji had an open mind. He would take every point of view into account. He had a generous and forgiving heart.

The first thing we learned from Sri Ramakrishna was to pay no attention to the opinion of others. He used to say: “Spit on public opinion! Look toward God and try to please him!” Swamiji was like that.

Sometimes we saw Swamiji doing every detail for himself. But there are others who only talk about such things; they never lift a finger. How difficult it is to recognize the ego and to control it!

When I returned from the West, the news of Swamiji’s death was such a great shock that I felt I should also die. I left everything, went straight to Vrindaban, and stayed there for three years. Krishnalal [Swami Dhirananda] was with me. I disciplined him a lot, which directed his mind toward worship and meditation. What is meditation? It is to erase all cravings from the heart. Generally, people seek their own advantage — what they can get out of life. To renounce that is liberation.

Swamiji at one time told me: “Live the ideal life. The Divine Mother has shown me that by doing so you will accomplish a hundred times more good than I.” I didn’t believe it. But then in all seriousness I plunged into the Lord’s work and the work succeeded. If I had not associated with great souls like Swamiji and others, what would I have been but perhaps a wandering monk? I would have had some sort of realization, no doubt, but not what I have today.

Swamiji gave us a higher ideal than realization for oneself; it is to expand the consciousness until you see yourself in all beings, and all beings in yourself.

Swamiji was an example of loyalty to his guru. There was power in Swamiji’s words because his heart and lips were one. He always held firmly to the truth.

Courtesy: Frank Parlato Jr.

REMINISCENCES OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
J. RANSOME BRANSBY

(From the Unity Magazine, February 1900)
(An edited version of this is available in the Complete Works)

It was Bransby who invited Vivekananda to be his guest at the Home of Truth, Los Angeles.

Of all the Vedantist missionaries who have visited this country probably Vivekananda is the most widely known, because he has done the most public work here and was such a notable figure at the World’s Parliament of Religions at Chicago. The other Swamis who are working in America were sent here by Vivekananda, but all of them are either directly or indirectly the disciples of one great teacher, Ramakrishna, who was an extreme Ascetic and at the same time an illumined soul, one might almost be tempted to say in spite of his Asceticism, for the Swami Vivekananda after twenty years’ experience in Ascetic has come to the conclusion that it is a mistake and not the road that leads to freedom. The Swami himself looks anything but an Ascetic. He reminds one rather of the good hearty monks one reads about as having flourished at the time of the Crusades.

The Hindoo missionaries are not among us to convert us to a better religion that Christ gave us, but rather in the name of religion itself to show us that there is in reality but one religion, and that we can do no better than to put in practice what we profess to believe. We had eight lectures at the Home by Swami and all were intensely interesting, though a few malcontents complained because he did not give some short cuts into the Kingdom, and show an easy way to the attainment of mental powers; instead he would say, “Go home and promise yourself that you will not worry for a whole month even though the maid breaks all your best china.”

There is combined in the Swami Vivekananda the learning of a university president, the dignity of an archbishop, with the grace and winsomeness of a free natural child. Getting on the platform without a moment’s preparation he would soon be in the midst of his subject, sometimes becoming almost tragic as his mind would wander from deep meta-physics to the prevailing condition in Christian countries today who go and seek to reform Filipinos with the sword in one hand and the Bible in the other, or in South Africa allow children of the same father to cut each other to pieces. To contrast this condition of things he described what took place during the last famine in India where men would die of starvation beside their cattle rather than stretch forth a hand to kill. (Will UNITY readers remember the fifty million Hindoos who are starving today and send them a blessing?)

Instead of trying to give much of what we heard from the Swami direct, I will append a few of the sayings of his master, Ramakrishna, that will better indicate the nature of his teaching. His chief aim seems to be to encourage people loving in simple, quiet, wholesome lives — that the life shall be the religion, not something separate and apart.

To the true mother he gives the highest place, counting her as more to be esteemed than those who simply run around teaching. “Anyone can talk,” he said, “but if I had to look after a baby, I could not endure existence for more than three days.” Frequently he would speak of the “mother” as we speak of the “father,” and would say, “the mother will take care of us,” or “the mother will look after things.”

We had a lecture on Christmas day from the Swami entitled “Christ’s Mission to the World,” and a better one on this subject I never heard. No Christian minister could have presented Jesus as a character worthy the greatest reverence more eloquently or more powerfully than did this learned Hindoo, who told us that in this country on account of his dark skin he has been refused admission to hotels, and even barbers have sometimes objected to shave him. Is it any wonder that our “heathen” brethren never fail to make mention of this fact that even “our” Master was an Oriental?

J. RANSOME BRANSBY

A FEW OF THE SAYINGS OF RAMAKRISHNA

“Different creeds are but different paths to reach the Almighty.”

“As the lamp does not burn without oil, man cannot live without God.”

“God is in all men, but all men are not in God; that is the reason why they suffer.”

“The vanities of all others may die out gradually, but the vanity of a saint is hard indeed to wear away.”

“Where is God? How can we get at Him? There are pearls in the sea. One must dive again and again till one gets at them. So there is God in the world, but you should persevere in diving.”

When the knowledge of self is obtained, all fetters fall off by themselves. Then there is no distinction of a Brahman or a Sudra, of high caste or low caste. In that case the sacred thread, the sign of caste, falls away of itself.

“man is like a cushion cover. The color of one may be red, another blue, another black, but all contain the same cotton inside. So it is with man, one is beautiful, one is black, another holy, a fourth wicked;

Courtesy: Frank Parlato Jr.

REMINISCENCES OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
VAIKUNTHANATH SANYAL

Vaikunthanath Sanyal, one of the householder disciples of Ramakrishna, visited the Master at Dakshineswar.

He recalled: “The Master was that day full of praise for Narendranath. Talking about him made him so desirous of seeing him that he was completely overwhelmed, and could no longer control himself; he hurried to the adjacent veranda and cried out, ‘Mother dear, I cannot live without seeing him.’ When he returned, be said to us, in a voice full of grief, ‘I have wept so much, and yet Narendra has not come. My heart is being squeezed as it were, so excruciating is the pain at not seeing him. But he does not care.’ He left the room again, but soon returned and said, ‘An old man pining and weeping for the boy! What will people think of me? You are my own people; I do not feel ashamed to confess it before you. But how will others take it? I cannot control myself.’ But his joy was correspondingly great when Naren came.”

(Source: The life of Swami Vivekananda by his eastern and western disciples.)

Ramakrishna period: 1885

Vaikunthanath Sanyal, a devotee of the Master, was at Dakshineswar, the day following the episode where Narendra, as instructed by Ramakrishna, went to the Kali temple intending to ask for boons of material prosperity and asked for spiritual boons instead.

Arriving at Dakshineswar at noon I found the Master alone in his room and Narendra sleeping outside. Shri Ramakrishna was in a joyful mood, and as soon as I saluted him he said, pointing to Narendra, “Look here, that boy is exceptionally good. His name is Narendra. He would not accept the Divine Mother before, but did so yesterday. He is in straitened circumstances nowadays; so I advised him to pray to the Mother for riches; but he couldn’t. He said he was put to shame. Returning from the temple he asked me to teach him a song to the Mother, which I did. The whole of last night he sang that song. So he is sleeping now.” Then with unfeigned delight he said, “Isn’t it wonderful that Narendra has accepted Mother?”

I said, “Yes.”

After a brief pause he repeated the question, and thus it went on for some time.

About four in the afternoon Narendra came to Shri Ramakrishna before leaving for Calcutta. No sooner had the Master seen him than he went closer and closer to him and sitting almost on his lap said, pointing first to himself and then to Narendra, “Well, I see I am this [himself] and again that [Naren]. Really I feel no difference just as a stick floating on the Ganga seems to divide the water, which in reality is one. Do you see the point? Well, what exists after all, but Mother? What do you say?” After talking a few minutes like this, he wished to smoke. I prepared tobacco and gave him the hookah. After one or two puffs at it he said he would smoke from the bowl [of the hookah]. Then he offered it to Naren saying, “Have a pull through my hands.” Naren of course hesitated. How could he defile the hands of his Guru by touching them with his lips? But Shri Ramakrishna said, “What foolish ideas you have! Am I different from you? This is myself and that [Naren] too is myself” He again put his hands in front of the lips of Narendra, who had no alternative but to comply with his request. Narendra took two or three puffs. Shri Ramakrishna was about to smoke when Narendra hurriedly interrupted saying, “Please wash your hands first, sir.”

But his protest was in vain. “What silly ideas of differentiation you have!” the Master said and smoked without washing his hands, talking all the while in an exalted mood.

I was surprised to see Shri Ramakrishna, who could not take any food if a part of it had already been offered to somebody else, making this remarkable exception in the case of Narendranath. It gave me an idea of his love for Narendra and of his feeling of kinship with him. When, about eight at night, he was in his normal mood again, Narendra and I took leave of him and walked to Calcutta.

Courtesy: Frank Parlato Jr.

REMINISCENCES OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
GOSWAMI BRIJ LAL

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA IN LAHORE

In November (1897) Swami Vivekananda visited Lahore along with his disciples. He was put up in the Haveli of Raja Dhyan Singh at Hira-mandi, where Jagadguru Shankaracharya also had been put up earlier. Goswamiji (Tirtha Ram) and his students had arranged for his lectures also in the same place. There was lot of open space there, even then it used to be so crowded that it was not possible to accommodate all the people. By sheer luck, Prof. Bose’s Circus had come to Lahore then. As there was no alternative, Swamiji’s lecture had to be arranged in the Circus pandal itself.

Goswamiji listened to his lectures with great interest and enthusiasm and inspired others also to listen to him. He became so intimate with Swami Vivekanandaji that he even brought him at his residence for dinner. . . His western disciples also dined there itself. After taking his meals, before parting, Swamiji looked into the personal library of Goswamiji and picked up a book, too.

It is in the blood of the Punjabies in general that they serve any guest or holy man to the best of their might and try to gift him the dearest of the things. Therefore Goswamiji offered him his most valuable belonging, a golden watch, but Swamiji, putting it back into Goswamiji’s pocket said that he would use it from his person itself.

Although Swami Vivekananda was a famous Vedantin and a monk of very high order, he never gave up recitation of Chandi. He used to recite it with great fervour. I have seen him reciting it.

Lala Hukumat Rai was a devotee especially attached to Goswamiji. It was he who arranged the lectures according to instructions of Goswamiji. He also used to visit Swami Vivekananda along with Goswamiji.

It was the custom of Goswamiji that if any famous orator came to Lahore, he used to call Bhaktaji (Hukumat Raiji) and Pundit Laddha Mal Muraliwala. Thus Pundit Laddha Malji was sent for. . . But he came on the day when the very next day Swamiji was to depart for Calcutta. That day Goswamiji was going to meet Swamiji. Meanwhile Laddha Malji also came and along with him he went to Swamiji. In the night they had exchange of ideas. Swami Vivekanandaji was extremely pleased to see the competence of Punditji and said that if he goes to Calcutta along with him, he will arrange for Rs. 200/- monthly salary for him. But the Punditji did not agree. At last, offering one pound sterling (guinea) and a silken turban to Punditji, Swamiji said that in the villages one comes across such competent persons like Punditji even now. . . Thus came to an end Swamiji’s eventful Lahore journey.

The author, Goswami Brij Lal, a nephew of Goswami Tirtha Ram (later Swami Rama Tirtha), was also staying there with him. He later wrote a biography of his uncle (Swami Ramatirtha) in Urdu (published from Lahore, 1912. At the time Goswami Tirtha Ram was a mathematics professor in a college there in Lahore, and later inspired by Vivekananda became a monk. Above is an excerpt on Swamiji from that book (pp. 115-118).

(Swami Videhatmananda, editor, Vivek Jyoti, a Hindi monthly of the Ramakrishna Order published from the Raipur Centre provides this information for Vedanta Kesari).

Courtesy: Frank Parlato Jr.

REMINISCENCES OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
REV. H. R. HAWEIS

From his book “TRAVEL AND TALK”
By Chatto Windus, London and Dodd, Mead, & Company, New York. 1897

The Parliament — In the centre of the great material, pork-purveying, money-grubbing city of Chicago — seven miles from the World’s Fair — is opened the Hall of Columbus, where three times a day an excited crowd scrambles for the 3,000 seats, whilst hundreds are on each occasion daily excluded, and this continues for sixteen days without abatement.

An Episcopal bishop or a Presbyterian minister is in the chair. As I sit on the platform I can see through a window the dense crowds waiting outside who will never get in.

At a signal all doors are closed, and the half-hour papers and speeches, “Theology of Judaism” & “Hinduism”; “Existence of God” & “Immortality” &c;, follow in quick succession. The Archbishop of Zante, in flowing robes, gives an address on the Greek Church; a Catholic bishop, Cardinal Gibbons, shows the needs of man supplied by the Catholic Church; the eloquent mystic Mazoomdar in excellent English pours forth a eulogy on the Bramho-Somaj; the Archimandrite from Damascus, who boasts that he has never spent a penny, not only addressed the meeting, but sat every day — sometimes, it is true, asleep — through all the speeches. The names of Canon (now Dean) Fremantle, Professor Max Muller, Professor Henry Drummond, Lyman Abbott, Dr. Momerie, and the leading lights of all the American universities, sufficiently show the representative and influential support given to the Religious Parliament; but to see the absorbed attention of these Chicago crowds day after day riveted on the discussion of abstruse religious and theological questions was a more impressive sight even than the Orientals in scarlet and orange-coloured robes and white turbans, or the galaxy of distinguished speakers and teachers whose names are known throughout the civilised world.

Nothing succeeds like success, and all of us who attended these earnest and enthusiastic meetings seemed to feel that the Chicago religious demonstration, with its cosmopolitan cry for unity and its practical plan for toleration, would leave a mark upon Christendom resembling, though differing from, the new departure created by the Protestant Reformation.

In listening to the eloquent Dharmapala of Ceylon, and the subtle and incisive utterances of the gorgeously robed Swami (Master) Vivekananda, it dawned upon many for the first time that so much high Christianity having been taught before Christ did not cheapen the Christian religion, but merely pointed to the Divine source from which both it and every other devout and noble teaching has come.

Clearer and clearer every day, as we listened to the accredited teachers of the world’s religions, did we perceive the everlastingly recurrent ideas, pure and simple, which underlie and vitalise all religious systems — God, the Soul, Sacrifice, Revelation, Divine Communion — clearer every day seemed to stand out the supremacy of the Christian ideal, and the unique work and personality of Jesus. A few notes of discord served only to throw up into higher relief the predominant keynote of brotherhood. The Rev. Joseph Cook, of Boston, or, as some called him, the Rev. ‘Cocksure’ Cook, in proclaiming his Christian certainties exhibited an almost archi-episcopal scorn of, and indifference to, all other certainties and religions, but he carried little weight — except that of his own dogmatism, which nearly sank him. Another gentleman raised a storm by intimating that polygamy was by no means an unmitigated evil. He was nevertheless listened to and loudly applauded at the close of his bold defence of Islamism.

Vivekananda, the popular Hindu monk, whose physiognomy bore the most striking resemblance to the classic face of the Buddha, denounced our commercial prosperity, our bloody wars, and our religious inconsistency, declaring that at such a price the ‘mild Hindu’ would have none of our vaunted civilisation. The recurrent and rhetorical use of the phrase ‘mild Hindu’ produced a very singular impression upon the audience, as the furious monk waved his arms and almost foamed at the mouth, “You come,” he cried, “with the Bible in one hand and the conqueror’s sword in the other — you, with your religion of yesterday, to us, who were taught thousands of years ago by our Rishis precepts as noble and lives as holy as your Christ’s. You trample on us and treat us like the dust beneath your feet. You destroy precious life in animals. You are carnivores. You degrade our people with drink. You insult our women. You scorn our religion — in many points like yours, only better, because more humane. And then you wonder why Christianity makes such slow progress in India. I tell you it is because you are not like your Christ, whom we could honour and reverence. Do you think if you came to our doors like Him, meek and lowly, with a message of love, living and working and suffering for others, as He did, we should turn a deaf ear? Oh, no! We should receive Him and listen to Him, as we have done our own inspired Rishis’ (teachers). I consider that Vivekananda’s personality was one of the most impressive, and his speech one of the most eloquent speeches which dignified the great congress. This remarkable person appeared in England in the autumn of 1895, and although he led a very retired life, attracted numbers of people to his lodgings, and created everywhere a very deep impression. He seemed completely indifferent to money, and lived only for thought. He took quite simply anything that was given him, and when nothing came he went without, yet he never seemed to lack anything; he lived by faith from day to day, and taught Yogi science to all who would listen, without money and without price. His bright orange flowing robe and white turban recalled forcibly the princely Magians who visited the birthplace of the Divine Babe. The Orientalists at the Congress supported each other admirably, not only from a scenic, but also from a controversial point of view.

Dharmapala, the Buddhist ascetic, in white robes and jet-black hair, followed Vivekananda, and, speaking in the same sense, denounced the missionaries. This brought up a gentleman in Chinese costume, an English missionary, who spoke up for his class with great ability and fire, intimating at the same time that the missionaries were far in advance of the missionary societies who sent them out. These, he said, were often narrow and intolerant; but the true Christian missionary knew how to value the native religions, and went out, not to denounce them, but to preach what was positive in his own, and to help the people to better knowledge and nobler lives. His class were, he declared, as a rule, not the idiots and self-indulgent idlers that had been described, but Godfearing and self-sacrificing men.

All the Orientalists fell bitterly on the pork butcher of Chicago, and on meat-eating generally. ‘If you cannot give life’ said Mazoomdar, ‘at least, for pity’s sake, do not take it’. Their utterances, however, failed to bear conviction to pig-killing, sausage-loving Chicago.

But on the whole, the message to the world from the World’s Parliament of Religions has been peace to all that are near, and all that are afar off.

Indeed, it is time to proclaim the essential unity of all religions — they conflict only in their accidents. The ‘broken lights’ bear witness to the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world — nay, are parts of that Light as much as the colours in the prism are parts of the sunlight. Henceforth to accept Christ the rejection of all the teachers that went before Him is not necessary, and to receive Christianity need not carry with it the dogma that all other religions are in all parts false.

Last, not least, people may feel together even when they cannot think or believe alike, and there may be ‘difference of administration,’ and yet the same spirit, ‘The brotherhood of man’ transcends all the ‘isms,’ even as Christ is greater than Christianity, and Religion than the Churches.

These are some of the voices from Chicago, which no scorn of the world can daunt, and no indifference of the Church will be able to silence.

Courtesy: Frank Parlato Jr.

REMINISCENCES OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
ELLA WILCOX

Ella Wheeler Wilcox met Swami Vivekananda in New York, in 1895.

From her book “THE WORLD AND I”. (George H. Doran Co., New York. 1918)

The year following the Chicago Exposition and Congress of Religions, the East Indian Monk, Swami Vivekananda, came to New York and gave a course of lectures. My husband was then passing through a business crisis which required all of his courage and self-control. We first heard of these lectures in a — some what curious way. One evening, just after dinner, the postman brought a letter; it was from a stranger, addressed to me, and had been three times forwarded. It told of a lecture to be given by Vivekananda, giving the time and the place, and closed, saying; ‘I feel sure, from what I read of your writings, that you will be interested.’ The hall where the lecture was to be given was just two blocks from our apartment, and the date was just one hour from the time I received the letter. We had no other engagement for that evening, and my husband proposed going.

We reached the hall just as Vivekananda was going on the stage in his robe and turban. We sat in the very last seat of the hall, clasping each other’s hands as the impressive orator gave a never-to-be-forgotten talk on things spiritual. When we went out my husband said: ‘I feel that man knows more of God than we do. We must both hear him again.’

My husband attended with me not only a number of evening lectures, but on several occasions came from his business office during the day to listen to the Swami. I remember him saying, as we went out on the street one day: ‘This man makes me rise above every business worry; he makes me feel how trivial is the whole material view of life and how limitless is the life beyond. I can go back to my troubles at the office now with new strength.’

Courtesy: Frank Parlato Jr.

REMINISCENCES OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
CHANDRASEKHAR CHATTOPADHYAYA

Swami Vivekananda’s Passing Away
(Translated from Bengali by Swami Chetanananda)

4 July 1902 was a memorable day. Swami Vivekananda, a great prophet of modern India, passed away at about 9:00 pm while he was in meditation. The flame of his life-lamp, which brightened the spiritual world, suddenly blew out in the deep darkness of night. The next morning this sad news spread throughout Calcutta and all over India. Swamiji’s disciple Kanai Maharaj (Swami Nirbhayananda) came to our house in Ahiritola and gave us the news. I was then busy performing worship in a temple nearby. I returned home before 9:00 am to find my mother crying loudly. When I asked why she was grieving, she said, “My son, a great calamity has taken place. Swamiji is no more. He has passed away — and you never did take me to see him.” I replied, “Mother, all monks in the monastery are called “Swami”. Which swamiji are you talking about? Perhaps you have misunderstood something.” My mother answered: “Oh no, Kanai came early this morning and said that the head Swamiji passed away last night at nine o’clock. He asked all of you to go to Belur Math.” I consoled my mother, saying, “It is not good to express grief for the death of a monk.”

SWAMIJI IN MAHASAMADHI

At that time my friend Nibaran, a disciple of Holy Mother, arrived. I decided not to go to work. Accompanied by Nibaran and my younger brother Dulalshashi, I went to the Ahiritola ghat, crossed the Ganges by boat, and then reached Belur Math at 10:00 am via Salikha (Salkia) and Ghusuri. It was raining a little. I saw that Rakhal Maharaj (Swami Brahmananda) and some monks were busy decorating a cot with flowers in the western veranda of the Math building. When Rakhal Maharaj saw me, he burst into tears. His voice was choked, so he pointed to the steps and indicated that we should go upstairs.

When I entered Swami Vivekananda’s room I saw that his divine body had been laid on a carpet. His forehead was smeared with holy ashes; a bouquet of flowers was placed near his head; and his body was covered with a new ochre cloth. His right hand was resting on the floor and a rosary had been placed around his right thumb. His eyes were indrawn and half-closed like Lord Shiva in meditation. The entire room was full of fragrance from incense burning at both sides of his body. Sister Nivedita was seated at the left side of Swamiji’s body, steadily fanning his head with a palm-leaf fan. Tears were trickling down her cheeks. Swamiji’s head was placed to the west and his feet to the east, towards the Ganges. Grief-stricken, Brahmachari Nandalal sat silently at his feet. We all three bowed down to Swamiji, touching his feet, and then sat there. When I touched his feet, they were as cold as ice.

I then touched Swamiji’s rosary and repeated the mantra given by my guru. Meanwhile, many distinguished people and devotees from Calcutta and other places arrived to see Swamiji for the last time. One after another they bowed down to him and left; but the three in my party, Brahmachari Nandalal and Sister Nivedita stayed. When I finished my japa, Nivedita whispered to me: “Can you sing, my friend? Would you mind singing the songs that our Thakur used to sing?” I said that I could not sing. Nivedita then requested, “On my behalf will you please ask your friend to sing?”

Then my friend Nibaran sang a few songs melodiously: “Cherish my precious Mother Shyama tenderly within, O mind”; “Why should I go to Ganga or Gaya, to Kashi, Kanchi or Prabas?”; “Is Kali, my Mother, really black? The Naked One, of blackest hue, lights the lotus of the heart”; “The black bee of my mind is drawn in sheer delight to the blue lotus flower of Mother Shyama’s feet”; “O my mind, chant the name of Kali. If you say Kali, Kali, the fear of Kala [Death] will disappear.”

NIVEDITA’S REACTION

Nivedita listened to these songs with all her attention. Pent-up emotions overflowed from her heart and began to flow from her eyes as tears. It was an unforgettable and sad scene; I shall never forget it. Although the incident occurred forty-five years ago, still its memory is written on my mind in golden letters. On that day the expression on Nivedita’s face told me how wounded was her lost and sad heart! It truly stirred my consciousness. I realized that her reaction was not the result of mere emotional weakness. Where is this great, learned, spiritual English woman full of renunciation and forbearance, and where are we who are proud of a little learning and devoid of renunciation!

THE LAST RITES

At about 1:00 pm Swami Saradananda came upstairs to Swamiji’s room and said to Brahmachari Nandalal and the three in my party: “Look, we are broken-hearted because of Swamiji’s passing away. We have lost all our strength. Would you be able to carry Swamiji’s body downstairs?” Immediately Brahmachari Nandalal and we three devotees slowly and carefully carried Swamiji’s body down the steps to the lower veranda and placed it on the cot decorated with flowers. As was the custom, some pomegranates, apples, pears and grapes were offered to Swamiji. Swami Advaitananda then said to the brahmachari, “O Nandalal, Swamiji loved you immensely. You perform the last worship to him.” When Swami Brahmananda and the other monks approved this proposal, Nandalal performed the ritual offerings of garlands and flowers, and of fruits and sweets, then waving an oil lamp and finally chanting a hymn.

It was proposed that a final photograph of Swamiji be taken, but Swami Brahmananda would not allow it, saying, “There are many good photographs of Swamiji; this sad picture will break the hearts of all.” Afterwards, Swami Brahmananda, the other monks and brahmacharins offered flowers at Swamiji’s feet. Finally, Haramohan Mitra (a classmate of Swamiji’s) and other devotees offered flowers. Later, Swamiji’s feet were painted with red dye (alta) and footprints were made on small pieces of cloth. Sister Nivedita also took a footprint on a new handkerchief. I took a beautiful rose (not fully open), smeared it with sandal paste, touched it to Swamiji’s feet and put it in my front pocket as a memento.

When the worship service was over, Swami Saradananda asked the same four of us to carry the cot to the spot where Swamiji’s body would be cremated. All the monks and devotees followed the procession. There had been some rain before noon, so the monastery ground was wet and slippery, and moreover it was covered with spear grass. So we slowly and cautiously crossed the vast area and placed the cot on the funeral pyre set with sandalwood. At that time Swamiji’s aunt and his cousin, Habu Datta, arrived by car from Simla (Calcutta), and began to cry and lament loudly.

Swami Saradananda then asked everyone, “Please take a bunch of pankati [the dried stalk of the jute plant], ignite it, circle Swamiji’s body seven times, place the blazing pankati under the cot just below Swamiji’s feet, and bow down to him.” According to his instructions, Swamiji’s body was consigned to the sandalwood fire, and the grief-stricken monks and devotees sat like statues around the blazing pyre. The funeral fire gradually rose high, extending its many lolling tongues to consume Swamiji’s body. Girish Chandra Ghosh, Upendranath Mukhopadhyay of the Basumati, Jaladhar Sen, Mahendranath Gupta (M), Akshay Kumar Sen and other devotees were seated on a cement bench near the bel tree and watching this heart-rending scene.

Broken-hearted, Girish Babu began to lament: “Naren, you were supposed to live and spread the glory of the Master by telling people my story of transformation. But this wish of mine has been destroyed by a horrible Providence . I am an old fellow [he was 19 years older than Swamiji], and I am left alive to see this terrible scene of yours. You are the Master’s son and you have gone to him. Look, you have departed prematurely, leaving us in this pitiable condition. How unfortunate we are”

At this, Nivedita could no longer suppress her grief. She got up and began to circle the blazing funeral pyre. Seeing her close to the pyre, Swami Brahmananda was concerned that her skirt would catch fire. He conveyed this to Swami Nirbhayananda, who then took Nivedita’s hand and led her away from the pyre. He made her sit on the bank of the Ganges and tried to console her.

The sacred fire and a favourable wind consumed the lower part of Swamiji’s divine body to ashes within a short time; but amazingly that fire did not touch his chest, face and the hair of his head. His facial expression and the look of his broad eyes were beautiful. It was suggested that someone shake Swamiji’ body so that it would burn quickly. This greatly upset Swami Nishchayananda, a disciple of Swamiji. He did not want to see his guru’s body prodded with a pole. So he immediately climbed up an old tree nearby, cut some branches and set them on the funeral pyre.

AFTERWARDS

Meanwhile, Swami Brahmananda took me aside, gave me a ten-rupee note, and said, “You and Nibaran take Girish Babu” boat, cross the Ganges and buy some sandesh [sweets] and other kinds of food from Baranagore Bazar. From last night on, no monk put anything in his mouth — not even a drop of water — and some devotees are also fasting.” When Bipin Saha of Baranagore saw us going to carry out Swami Brahmananda’s order, he joined us. He contributed five rupees and asked a confectioner in Baranagore Bazar to prepare hot luchis [fried bread], kachuri and sandesh. He then carried the food basket on his head and returned to Belur Math with us. It was evening when we returned to the monastery, and the funeral pyre had been extinguished. Swamiji’s remains had been collected, and the monks and devotees were bathing in the Ganges and making water offerings.

M said to me, “You have touched the dead body. Now you bathe and offer water to the departed soul.” I replied: “A sadhu is Narayana [God]. Have I become impure by touching that divine body?” Following Swami Brahmananda’s orders, I carried the food to be offered to the Master without first changing my clothes. Swami Premananda understood my attitude, and said, “You do not have to take a bath, but let me sprinkle Ganges water on your head. Take the food to the shrine and then go to the Ganges to offer water to Swamiji as is customary.”

There were no worship services that day. Vespers were conducted that evening and food was offered to the Master at that time. Prasad [offered food], tea and water were then distributed among the monks and devotees. Afterwards, the grief-stricken devotees returned home.

To fulfil Swamiji’;s last wish, Kali Puja was held at Belur Math on the first new-moon night (amavasya) after 4 July. No outsiders were invited on that occasion, except for Bhupendranath Datta, Swamiji’s younger brother. Makhan Maharaj asked me and Nibaran to bring thirty pounds of dry bel wood for the homa fire. The new moon fell on a Saturday. When Nibaran and I arrived at Belur Math with the dry bel wood, Swami Brahmananda was pleased. He recited two lines of a hymn to Shiva: “Chandrashekhara chandrashekhara chandrashekhara pahi mam. Chandrashekhara chandrashekhara chandrashekhara raksha mam.” [O Chandrashekhara, please nourish us. O Chandrashekhara, please protect us.] Then the swami continued: “You have saved the situation by bringing dry bel wood in this stormy and rainy weather. May the Divine Mother bless you.”

At 10:00 pm Kali Puja began in the upper shrine room of the monastery. Ishwar Chandra Chakrabarty, a Tantric adept and father of Swami Ramakrishnananda, performed the worship. Monks and brahmacharins bowed to the Master in the shrine and then meditated in Swamiji’s room. Before that, when the evening food offering was over, Swami Brahmananda told Swami Premananda, “Please give prasad to Bhupen and these two devotees; but the rest of us will fast.” After having prasad, we three lay down in the large room downstairs in the western part of the Math building. That night, Swami Nityananda (an elderly disciple of Swamiji) occasionally made loud and pathetic cries that reverberated throughout the monastery.

At 3:00 am Swami Saradananda came to our room and woke us up. He asked us to go to the room upstairs.

There Swami Brahmananda asked me to purify myself by sipping some water and to repeat my mantra. After a while Swami Brahmananda asked everyone present to go to the western courtyard where the homa fire was arranged. We joined the monks and sat around that sacred fire, repeating our mantra. After the homa fire, we all went to the spot where Swamiji’s body had been cremated, circled it seven times, and bowed down. Everyone then sat under the bel tree for a while and repeated his mantra. Finally, all of us went to the Master’s shrine and bowed down to him, and then took prasad downstairs.

Courtesy: Frank Parlato Jr.