Swami Vivekananda - Sister Christine : 24

EARLY ADVENTURES OF THE SPIRIT

...The process of re-education into Hinduism began. He was among those who had stormed against idol worship, but in this priest of Kali, who worshipped the image of Dakshineswar as his Mother, he found a character greater than any he had met before — a being of shining radiance, the very embodiment of love, of Divinity, "If idol worship can produce such a character," he thought, "I bow down before it." He saw one who practised each religion in turn and found that all led to the goal. He learnt the truth of the Sanskrit verse, "Many rivers flowing in various directions, all lead to the one ocean," or "Whether we call it water, aqua, pani, jal, it is all one water." Best of all, he learnt that religion may be experienced, not merely believed, and that there are methods which give this experience; that man may here and in this body become divine-transmuted, from the human into the superhuman. In Shri Ramakrishna, he saw one who lived "God is the only Reality".

The time with the Master was drawing to an end. All too soon, this God-intoxicated one left a little band of disconsolate disciples who at first felt like sheep without a shepherd. After a time, this feeling of helplessness and desolation gradually gave way to the knowledge which amounted to a certainty of the presence of the Master. From that time on, there was always a centre, however humble, where the Master was worshipped. However far many of them might wander, one was there to keep the altar-fire burning.

To be continued.... (Memoirs of  Sister Christine)