30 June : Inspired Talk : Recorded by Miss S. E. Waldo

ॐ वीरेश्वराय विद्महे विवेकानन्दाय धीमहि । तन्नो वीर: प्रचोदयात् ।
SATURDAY, June 29, 1895. (The Swami came this morning with a Gita in his hand.)

Krishna, the "Lord of souls", talks to Arjuna or Gudâkesha, "lord of sleep" (he who has conquered sleep). The "field of virtue" (the battlefield) is this world; the five brothers (representing righteousness) fight the hundred other brothers (all that we love and have to contend against); the most heroic brother, Arjuna (the awakened soul), is the general. We have to fight all sense-delights, the things to which we are most attached, to kill them. We have to stand alone; we are Brahman, all other ideas must be merged in this one.

Krishna did everything but without any attachment; he was in the world, but not of it. "Do all work but without attachment; work for work's sake, never for yourself."

Freedom can never be true of name and form; it is the clay out of which we (the pots) are made; then it is limited and not free, so that freedom can never be true of the related. One pot can never say "I am free" as a pot; only as it loses all ideas of form does it become free. The whole universe is only the Self with variations, the one tune made bearable by variation; sometimes there are discords, but they only make the subsequent harmony more perfect. In the universal melody three ideas stand out — freedom, strength, and sameness.

If your freedom hurts others, you are not free there. You must not hurt others.

"To be weak is to be miserable", says Milton. Doing and suffering are inseparably joined. (Often, too, the man who laughs most is the one who suffers most.) "To work you have the right, not to the fruits thereof."

*****************

Evil thoughts, looked at materially, are the disease bacilli.

Each thought is a little hammer blow on the lump of iron which our bodies are, manufacturing out of it what we want it to be.

We are heirs to all the good thoughts of the universe, if we open ourselves to them.

The book is all in us. Fool, hearest not thou? In thine own heart day and night is singing that Eternal Music — Sachchidânanda, soham, soham — Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, I am He, I am He.

The fountain of all knowledge is in every one of us, in the ant as in the highest angel. Real religion is one, but we quarrel with the forms, the symbols, the illustrations. The millennium exists already for those who find it; we have lost ourselves and then think the world is lost.

Perfect strength will have no activity in this world; it only is, it does not act.

While real perfection is only one, relative perfections must be many.

 Today's-Special : 30-June in Swami Vivekananda Life

Bhakti Yoga classes in London

Date: 

Sun, 2013-06-30

30 Jun 1896 : Bhakti Yoga classes in London

To Mr. J. J. Goodwin's mother from ALMORA - June 1898 : 
[On receiving news of the untimely death of Josiah J. Goodwin, Swami Vivekananda sent the following paragraph along with the poem "Requiescat in Pace" to the newspapers as well as to Goodwin's mother.]

With infinite sorrow I learn the sad news of Mr. Goodwin's departure from this life, the more so as it was terribly sudden and therefore prevented all possibilities of my being at his side at the time of death. The debt of gratitude I owe him can never be repaid, and those who think they have been helped by any thought of mine ought to know that almost every word of it was published through the untiring and most unselfish exertions of Mr. Goodwin. In him I have lost a friend true as steel, a disciple of never — failing devotion, a worker who knew not what tiring was, and the world is less rich by one of those few who are born, as it were, to live only for others.

Devotion

 

29 June : Reminiscences On Swami by VirajaDevi

ॐ वीरेश्वराय विद्महे विवेकानन्दाय धीमहि । तन्नो वीर: प्रचोदयात् ।

EARLY in March 1900 the Swami Vivekananda gave a series of three lectures on "Indian Ideals" in Redmen's Hall, Union Square, San Francisco, and it was at the first lecture of this series that I had the blessed privilege of hearing him. Being in ill health, both mentally and physically, it was a great effort to go to the lecture; and as I sat in the hall waiting for the Swami to come. I began to wonder whether I had not made a mistake in coming to hear him; but all doubts vanished when the Swami's majestic figure entered the hall. He talked for about two hours telling us of India's Ideals and taking us with him, as it were, to his own country so that we might understand him a little and be able to comprehend even in the least the great truths he taught. After the lecture, I was introduced to the Swami; but feeling overawed by his wonderful presence. I did not speak, but sat down at a distance and watched him, while waiting for friends who were busy settling up the business connected with the lectures. After the second lecture, I was again waiting, sitting at a distance watching the Swami, when he looked across and beckoned to me to come to him. I went and stood before him as he sat in a chair. He said, "Madame. if you want to see me privately, you come to the flat on Turk Street, no charge there, none of this botheration about money."

I told him I should like very much to see him. He said, "Come tomorrow morning", and I thanked him. Much of the night was spent thinking of all the questions I should ask him, as many questions had been troubling me for months and no one to whom I had gone was able to help me. On arriving at the flat next morning, I was told that the Swami was going out, so could not see any one. I said I knew he would see me because he had told me I might come, so I was allowed to go up the stairs and into the front sitting-room. In a little while the Swami came into me room, dressed in his long overcoat and little round hat, chanting softly. He sat on a chair on the opposite side of the room and continued chanting softly in his incomparable way. Presently he said "Well, Madame!" I could not speak but began to weep and kept on weeping as though the flood-gates had been opened. The Swami continued chanting for a while, then said, "Come tomorrow about the same time."

Thus ended my first interview with the Blessed Swami Vivekananda, and as I went from his presence, my problems were solved and my questions were answered, though he had not asked me anything. It is now over twenty-four years since that interview with the Swami, yet it stands out in memory as the greatest blessing of my life. I had the wonderful privilege of seeing Swamiji every day for a month, and was in the meditation class which he held in Turk Street.

I used to stay after the class and help him cook lunch etc., or rather, he allowed me to be in the kitchen with him and do odd jobs for him while he talked Vedanta and chanted and cooked. One verse from the Gita he chanted a great deal is verse 61, Chapter 18: "The Lord dwelleth in the hearts of all beings, O Arjuna, by His illusive power, causing all beings to revolve as though mounted on a potter's wheel.

He chanted it in Sanskrit, and every now and then would stop and talk of it. He was so wonderful, his nature so manysided, at times so childlike, at times the Vedanta Lion, but to me always the kind and loving parent. He told me not to call him Swami, but to call him "Babaji", as the children did in India. Once when walking along the street with Swamiji after a lecture, all at once he seemed to me so big, as though he towered above the ordinary mortals. The people on the street looked like pigmies, and he had such a majestic presence that people stepped aside to let him pass by. One evening after the lecture, Swamiji insisted upon taking a party of about 10 or 12 of us to have ice-cream. Some ordered ice-cream and some ice-cream soda. Swamiji was fond of ice-cream but did not care for ice-cream soda. The waitress who look the order made a mistake and brought ice-cream soda for the Swami; she said she would change it for him. The proprietor spoke to the waitress about it, and when Swamiji heard him, he called out, "Don't you scold that poor girl. I'll take all the ice-cream soda if you are going to scold her."

After living in Turk Street for a month, Swamiji went to Alameda and stayed at the "Home of Truth", It was quite a large house and was surrounded by a beautiful garden, where the Swamiji used to walk about in smoking. There was quite a large porch on the house on which Swamiji sat sometimes talking to the few of us who gathered around him. The Easter Sunday night was the full moon, the nisteria was in full bloom and draped the porch like a curtain. Swamiji sat on the porch smoking and telling funny stories, then he told of how his feet hurt him when he wore shoes in Chicago, and of his experience with a lady doctor who had undertaken to doctor his toe. He said. "Oh my toe, my toe! Whenever I think of that lady doctor, my toe hurts. "Then one of the party asked him to talk on "Renunciation". "Renunciation?" said Swamiji, "Babies, what do you know of renunciation?" "Are we too young even to hear of it?" was asked. Swamiji was silent for a while and then gave a most illuminating and inspiring talk. He spoke of discipleship and of entire resignation to the guru, which was quite a new teaching to the Western world. While in Alameda Swamiji used to cook Hindu dishes for himself on Sunday afternoons, and I again had the privilege of being with him and partaking of his dishes; and although I attended all Swamiji's public lectures both in San Francisco and Alameda, it was this close contact with the Swamiji that I most deeply cherish. Once after being quiet for some time Swamiji said, "Madame, be broad-minded, always see two ways. When I am on the Heights I say 'I am He', and when I have a stomach-ache, I say "Mother, have mercy on me'. Always see two ways." On another occasion he said, "Learn to be the witness. If there are two dogs fighting on the street and I go out there, I get mixed up in the fight but if I stay quietly in my room. I witness the fight from the window. So learn to be the witness." While in Alameda Swamiji gave public lectures in Tucker Hall. He gave one wonderful lecture. "The Ultimate Destiny of Man" and Finished by placing his hand on his chest and saying "I am God". A most awed silence fell upon the audience, and many people thought it blasphemy for Swamiji to say such a thing.

Once he did something in rather an unconventional way. and I was a little shocked at him. He said. "O Madame, you always want this little outside to be so nice. It is not the outside that matters, it is the inside."

How little we understood the Swamiji? We had no knowledge of what he really was. Sometimes he would tell me things, and I in the abundance of my ignorance, would tell him I did not think that way, and he would laugh and say, "Don't you?" His love and toleration was wonderful. Swamiji was not in good health — much lecturing told upon him. He used to say he did not like platform work, "Public lecturing is killing. At eight o'clock I am to speak on'Love'. At eight o'clock I do not feel like love!"

After he finished lecturing in Alameda, the Swami went to Camp Taylor and a tittle later started for the East and we in California never saw him again. Yet we who were blessed by his presence cannot feel he is entirely gone from us. He lives in our memories and in the teachings he gave us. Before he left, he told me if I ever got into psychic difficulty again to call on him and he would hear me wherever he was, even though hundreds of miles away, and it may be he can hear even now.

(Vedanta Kesari, September 1924)

 

Today's-Special : 29-June in Swami Vivekananda Life

A summary of "Buddhism", the fulfillment of Hinduism
Swami Vivekananda's speech, delivered in Chicago at the presentation of the Buddhists on September 26, 1893, is published in MacNeely's edition of the "History of the Parliament of Religions". The following were his concluding words: —
We cannot live without you, nor you without us. Then believe that separation has shown to us, that you cannot stand without the brain and the philosophy of the Brahman [sic], nor we without your heart. This separation between the Buddhist and the Brahman [Brahmin] is the cause of the downfall of India. That is why India has been the slave of conquerors for the past 1000 years. Let us then join the wonderful intellect of the Brahman [Brahmin] with the heart, the noble soul, the wonderful humanising power of the Great Master.

Vigour

28 June : Letter to a Madras disciple

541 DEARBORN AVE.,
CHICAGO,
28 June, 1894.
DEAR__ ,
The other day I received a letter from G. G., Mysore. G. G. unfortunately thinks that I am all-knowing, else he would have written his Canarese address on the top of the letter more legibly. Then again it is a great mistake to address me letters to any other place but Chicago. It was my mistake of course at first, because I ought to have thought of the fine Buddhi (intellect) of our friends who are throwing letters at me anywhere they find an address at the top. But tell our Madras Brihaspatis (i.e. wise fellows) that they already knew full well that before their letters reach, I may be 1000 miles away from that particular place, for I am continuously travelling. In Chicago there is a friend whose house is my headquarters.
Now as to my prospects here — it is well-nigh zero. Why, because although I had the best purpose, it has been made null and void by these causes. All that I get about India is from Madras letters. Your letters say again and again how I am being praised in India. But that is between you and me, for I never saw a single Indian paper writing about me, except the three square inches sent to me by Alasinga. On the other hand, everything that is said by Christians in India is sedulously gathered by the missionaries and regularly published, and they go from door to door to make my friends give me up. They have succeeded only too well, for there is not one word for me from India. Indian Hindu papers may laud me to the skies, but not a word of that ever came to America, so that many people in this country think me a fraud. In the face of the missionaries and with the jealousy of the Hindus here to back them, I have not a word to say.
I now think it was foolish of me to go to the Parliament on the strength of the urging of the Madras boys. They are boys after all. Of course, I am eternally obliged to them, but they are after all enthusiastic young men without any executive abilities. I came here without credentials. How else to show that I am not a fraud in the face of the missionaries and the Brahmo Samaj? Now I thought nothing so easy as to spend a few words; I thought nothing would be so easy as to hold a meeting of some respectable persons in Madras and Calcutta and pass a resolution thanking me and the American people for being kind to me and sending it over officially, i.e. through the Secretary of the function, to America, for instance, sending one to Dr. Barrows and asking him to publish it in the papers and so on, to different papers of Boston, New York, and Chicago. Now after all, I found that it is too terrible a task for India to undertake. There has not been one voice for me in one year and every one against me, for whatever you may say of me in your homes, who knows anything of it here? More than two months ago I wrote to Alasinga about this. He did not even answer my letter. I am afraid his heart has grown lukewarm. So you must first think of that and then show this letter to the Madras people. On the other hand, my brethren foolishly talk nonsense about Keshab Sen; and the Madrasis, telling the Theosophists anything I write about them, are creating only enemies. . . . Oh! If only I had one man of some true abilities and brains to back me in India! But His will be done. I stand a fraud in this country. It was my foolishness to go to the Parliament without any credentials, hoping that there would be many for me. I have got to work it out slowly.
On the whole, the Americans are a million times nobler than the Hindus, and I can work more good here than in the country of the ingrate and the heartless. After all, I must work my Karma out. So far as pecuniary circumstances go I am all right and will be all right. The number of Theosophists in all America is only 625 by the last census. Mixing up with them will smash me in a minute rather than help me in any way. What nonsense does Alasinga mean by my going to London to see Mr. Old etc. Fool! the boys there don't know what they are talking. And this pack of Madras babies cannot even keep a counsel in their blessed noodles! Talk nonsense all day, and when it comes to the least business, they are nowhere! Boobies, who cannot get up a few meetings of 50 men each and send up a few empty words only to help me, talk big about influencing the world. I have written to you about the phonograph. Now there is here an electric fan costing $20 and working beautifully. The battery works 100 hours and then can be replenished at any electric plant. Good-bye, I have had enough of the Hindus. Now His will be done, I obey and bow down to my Karma. However, do not think me ungrateful. . . . The Madras people have done for me more than I deserved and more than was in their power. It was my foolishness — the forgetting for a moment that we Hindus have not yet become human beings and giving up for a moment my self-reliance and relying upon the Hindus — that I came to grief. Every moment I expected something from India. No, it never came. Last two months especially I was in torture at every moment. No, not even a newspaper from India! My friends waited — waited month after month; nothing came, not a voice. Many consequently grew cold and at last gave me up. But it is the punishment for relying upon man and upon brutes, for our countrymen are not men as yet. They are ready to be praised, but when their turn comes even to say a word, they are nowhere.
My thanks eternal to the Madras young men. May the Lord bless them for ever. America is the best field in the world to carry on my idea; so I do not think of leaving America soon. And why? Here I have food and drink and clothes, and everybody so kind, and all this for a few good words! Why should I give up such a noble nation to go to the land of brutes and ingrates and the brainless boobies held in eternal thraldom of superstitious, merciless, pitiless wretches? So good-bye again. You may show this letter to the people with discretion, even Alasinga upon whom I built so much. By the by, will you kindly send up a few copies of the sketch of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's life written by Mazumdar to Chicago? They have lots in Calcutta. Don't forget the address 541 Dearborn Avenue (not Street), Chicago, or c/o Thomas Cook, Chicago. Any other address would cause much delay and confusion, as I am continually travelling, and Chicago is my headquarters, although even this much did not come to the brains of our Madras friends. Kindly give G. G., Alasinga, Secretary, and all others my eternal blessings. I am always praying for their welfare, and I am not in the least displeased with them, but I am not pleased with myself. I committed a terrible error — of calculating upon others' help  — once in my life — and I have paid for it. It was my fault and not theirs. Lord bless all the Madras people. They are at least far superior to the Bengalis, who are simply fools and have no souls, no stamina at all. Good-bye, good-bye. I have launched my boat in the waves, come what may. Regarding my brutal criticisms, I have really no right to make them. You have done for me infinitely more than I deserve. I must bear my own Karma, and that without a murmur. Lord bless you all.
Yours truly,
VIVEKANANDA.
PS. I am afraid Alasinga's college has closed, but I have no intimation of it, and he never gave me his home address. Kidi has dropped out, I am afraid.

 Todays-Special 28-June in Swami Vivekananda Life

Inspired Talks at Thousand Island

Date: 

Fri, 2013-06-28

FRIDAY, June 28, 1895. (The entire party went on a picnic for the day, and although the Swami taught constantly, as he did wherever he was, no notes were taken and no record, therefore, of what he said remains. As he began his breakfast before setting out, however, he remarked:)
Be thankful for all food, it is Brahman. His universal energy is transmuted into our individual energy and helps us in all that we do.

To Dr. Paul Carus - June [May] 28, '95
DEAR SIR,
I am just now in receipt of your letter and will be very happy to join the religions Congress at Toronto. Only, as you are well aware of, the financial means of a "Bhikshu" (A Hindu or Buddhist monk.) are very limited. I will be only too glad to do anything in my power to help you and wait further particulars and directions.

Hoping to hear from you soon and thanking you very much for your great sympathy with Buddhistic India.

 Failure

 

27 June : Letter to Swami Saradananda

228 WEST 39TH STREET,
NEW YORK,
23rd December, 1895.

DEAR SHARAT,

Your letter only made me sad. I see you have lost all enthusiasm. I know all of you, your powers and your limitations. I would not have called you to any task which you are incompetent to do. The only task I would have given you was to teach elementary Sanskrit, and with the help of dictionaries and other things assist S. in his translations and teachings. I would have moulded you to it. Anyone could have done as well — only a little smattering of Sanskrit was absolutely necessary. Well, everything is for the best. If it is the Lord's work the right man for the right place will be forthcoming in the right time. None of you need feel disturbed. As for Sanyal, I don't care who takes money or not, but I have a strong hatred for child-marriage. I have suffered terribly from it, and it is the great sin for which our nation has to suffer. As such, I would hate myself if I help such a diabolical custom directly or indirectly. I wrote to you pretty plain about it, and Sanyal had no right to play a hoax upon me about his "law-suit" and his attempts to become free. I am sorry for his playing tricks on me who have never done him any harm. This is the world. What good you do goes for nothing, but if you stop doing it, then, Lord help you, you are counted as a rogue. Isn't it? Emotional natures like mine are always preyed upon by relatives and friends. This world is merciless. This world is our friend when we are its slaves and no more. This world is broad enough for me. There will always be a corner found for me somewhere. If the people of India do not like me, there will be others who do. I must set my foot to the best of my ability upon this devilish custom of child-marriage. No blame will entail on you. You keep at a safe distance if you are afraid. I am sorry, very sorry, I cannot have any partnership with such doings as getting husbands for babies. Lord help me, I never had and never will have. Think of the case of M__ Babu! Did you ever meet a more cowardly or brutal one than that? I can kill the man who gets a husband for a baby. The upshot of the whole thing is — I want bold, daring, adventurous spirits to help me. Else I will work alone. I have a mission to fulfil. I will work it out alone. I do not care who comes or who goes. Sanyal is already done for by Samsâra. Beware, boy! That was all the advice I thought it my duty to give you. Of course, you are great folks now — my words will have no value with you. But I hope the time will come when you will see clearer, know better, and think other thoughts than you are now doing.

Good-bye! I would not bother you any more, and all blessings go with you all. I am very glad I have been of some service to you sometimes if you think so. At least I am pleased with myself for having tried my best to discharge the duties laid on me by my Guru, and well done or ill, I am glad that I tried. So good-bye. Tell Sanyal that I am not at all angry with him, but I am sorry, very sorry. It is not the money — that counts nothing — but the violation of a principle that pained me, and the trick he played on me. Good-bye to him also, and to you all. One chapter of my life is closed. Let others come in their due order. They will find me ready. You need not disturb yourselves at all about me. I want no help from any human being in any country. So good-bye! May the Lord bless you all for ever and ever!

 

 Todays-Special 27-June in Swami Vivekananda Life

Inspired Talks at Thousand Island

Date: 

Thu, 2013-06-27

27 June 1895 : At Thousand Island - Inspired Talks - My Master taught that religion is one; all prophets teach the same; but they can only present the principle in a form; so they take it out of the old form and put it before us in a new one. When we free ourselves from name and form, especially from a body — when we need no body, good or bad — then only do we escape from bondage. Eternal progression is eternal bondage; annihilation of form is to be preferred. We must get free from any body, even a "god-body". God is the only real existence, there cannot be two. There is but One Soul, and I am That.

Good works are only valuable as a means of escape; they do good to the doer, never to any other.

Knowledge is mere classification. When we find many things of the same kind we call the sum of them by a certain name and are satisfied; we discover "facts", never "why". We take a circuit in a wider field of darkness and think we know something! No "why" can be answered in this world; for that we must go to God. The Knower can never be expressed; it is as when a grain of salt drops into the ocean, it is at once merged in the ocean.

27 June 1899 - Letter to Sister Christine

 Thought

26 June : REMINISCENCES OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA, IDA ANSELL

ॐ वीरेश्वराय विद्महे विवेकानन्दाय धीमहि । तन्नो वीर: प्रचोदयात् । 

Swamiji always attracted attention wherever he went. He had a majestic bearing which everybody recognized. As he would walk down Market Street, people would stand aside to let him pass or turn around and ask. "Who is the Hindu prince?" It was in this way that he was able to see a ship launched from the actual launching platform. Tom was working in one of the big iron works of San Francisco at the time. and when Swamiji expressed a wish to see a launching, he invited a little group to the shipyard. The launching platform was closed except to the invited guests of the management who had tickets, and the ramp leading to the platform was guarded by two attendants. Swamiji decided he would have a better view from the launching platform, so he just calmly walked past the guards, who made no protest. When he came down, after the launching, he said. "It is like the birth of a child."
Swamiji emphasized the fact that spiritual people are not fanatical or severe. "They are not long-faced and thin." he said. "They are fat, like me."
During one of the talks in Miss Bell's tent at Camp Irving. Miss Bell remarked that the world is a school where we come to learn our lesson. Swamiji asked. "Who told you that the world is a school?"
Miss Bell was silent. Swamiji went on, "This world is a circus, and we are clowns come to tumble." Miss Bell asked, "Why do we tumble. Swamiji?" Swamiji replied. "Because we like to tumble. When we get tired of tumbling, we quit."
Tom and Edith had an apartment in San Francisco which was permeated with the atmosphere of Swamiji. All the Swamis of the Ramakrishna Order in this country loved to visit them when they went to San Francisco, and some of them said or wrote. "You, more than anybody else in the West, are able to make Swamiji real to us." One of my friends said of them when she and her son visited the Allans a few years ago that their account of Swami Vivekananda was so full of joy and so vivid, it seemed as though he himself could walk into the room. There was a beautiful picture of him in the dining room, and the guests were always seated facing it. Chanting always preceded the meal, and there was little talk of anything during it other than of Swamiji, his Master, and his work. All his books were there, and the Allans had an enormous collection of pictures which they enjoyed showing to their guests. One particular favourite was taken in a garden. Swamiji was lying on the grass, enjoying a conversation with some friends, when someone came and wanted to take his picture. He did not want to get up but, urged by all to do so, he stood up, just as he was, without turban or robe, against a background of flowering vines, looking as if about to speak, and the result is one of his best portraits.
Edith had a nice contralto voice, and sometimes she would sing, with deep feeling, some of the songs associated with Swamiji. A favourite was the song of the nautch-girl, which she adapted from Swamiji's translation of a song sung by a courtesan in the palace of a Raja where he was staying just before leaving for America the first time. Although he left the room when he learnt that this girl was about to sing, he heard the song from outside and was so moved by the words and her manner of singing that he returned and spoke most beautifully to her, even thanking her for the lesson she had given him, thus removing the last vestige of a possible spiritual pride, and completing the preparation for his work in the West.
Never since the day Swamiji perceived Edith's need for help has he been out of her mind. Many times in the last fifty years she has remembered the words spoken at their last meeting: "It ever you are in trouble, you can call on me. No matter where I am, I'll hear you." Many ordeals she has met bravely, sustained by that promise.
In one of his lectures Swamiji said, "If a bad time comes, what of that? The pendulum must swing back to the other side. But that is no better. The thing to do is to stop it." Then he uttered an American expression which children used to use when swinging, when they would stop pumping and let the swing slow down to a halt: "Let the old cat die."
To have seen and heard Swamiji and to have felt his words of power flow through me on to paper and thence to print for many to read, thereby receiving courage and inspiration, is a rare privilege and is compensation for all ills of life. It makes me almost ready to let the old cat die.

 Todays-Special 26-June in Swami Vivekananda Life

Letter To the Hale Sisters

Date: 

Wed, 2013-06-26

26 June
To the Hale Sisters...26th June, 1894.
"Fool! whom art thou bending thy tottering knees before, in awe and fear? I took my necklace and put it round His neck; and, tying a string to it as a collar, I am dragging Him along with me, for fear He may fly away even for a moment that necklace was the collar of love; that string the ecstasy of love. Fool! you know not the secret — the Infinite One comes within my fist under the bondage of love." "Knowest thou not that the Lord of the Universe is the bond slave of love?" "Knowest thou not that the Mover of the Universe used to dance to the music of the ringing bracelets of the shepherdesses of Vrindaban?" 26 June 1895 to Mary Hale :
 I am enjoying this place immensely. Very little eating and good deal of thinking and talking and study. A wonderful calmness is coming over my soul. Every day I feel I have no duty to do; I am always in eternal rest and peace. It is He that works. We are only the instruments. Blessed be His name! The threefold bondage of lust and gold and fame is, as it were, fallen from me for the time being, and once more, even here, I feel what sometimes I felt in India, "From me all difference has fallen, all right or wrong, all delusion and ignorance has vanished, I am walking in the path beyond the qualities." What law I obey, what disobey? From that height the universe looks like a mud-puddle. Hari Om Tat Sat. He exists; nothing else does. I in Thee and Thou in me. Be Thou Lord my eternal refuge! Peace, Peace, Peace!

Religion

25 June : And let Shyama Dance There

ॐ वीरेश्वराय विद्महे विवेकानन्दाय धीमहि । तन्नो वीर: प्रचोदयात् ।

Beaut'ous blossoms ravishing with perfume,
 Swarms of maddened bees buzzing all around;
 The silver moon--a shower of sweet smile,
 Which all the dwellers of heaven above
 Shed lavishly upon the homes of earth;
 The soft Malaya breeze, whose magic touch
 Opens to view distant memory's folds;
 Murmuring rivers and brooks, rippling lakes
 With restless Bhramaras wheeling over
 Gently waving lotuses unnumbered;
 Foaming flow cascades--a streaming music--
 To which echo mountain caves in return;
 Warblers, full of sweet-flowing melody,
 Hidden in leaves, pour hearts out--love discourse;
 The rising orb of day, the painter divine,
 With his golden brush but lightly touches
 The canvas earth and a wealth of colours
 Floods at once o'er the bosom of nature,
 --Truly a museum of lovely hues--
 Waking up a whole sea of sentiments.


 The roll of thunder, the crashing of clouds,
 War of elements spreading earth and sky;
 Darkness vomiting forth blinding darkness,
 The Pralaya wind angrily roaring;
 In quick bursts of dazzling splendour flashes
 Blood-red terrific lightning, dealing death;
 Monster waves roaring like thunder, foaming,
 Rush impetuous to leap mountain peaks;
 The earth booms furious, reels and totters,
 Sinks down to its ruin, hurled from its place;
 Piercing the ground, stream forth tremendous flames,
 Mighty ranges blow up into atoms.


 A lovely villa, on a lake of blue--
 Festooned with clusters of water-lilies;
 The heart-blood of ripe grapes capped with white foam
 Whispering softly tells tale of passion;
 The melody of the harp floods the ears,
 And by its air, time, and harmony rich,
 Enhances desire in the breast of man;
 What stirring of emotions! How many
 Hot sighs of Love! And warm tears coursing down!
 The Bimba -red lips of the youthful fair,
 The two blue eyes--two oceans of feelings;
 The two hands eager to advance--love's cage--
 In which the heart, like a bird, lies captive.
 The martial music bursts, the trumpets blow,
 The ground shakes under the warriors' tread;
 The roar of cannon, the rattle of guns,
 Volumes of smoke, the gruesome battlefield,s
 The thundering artillery vomits fire
 In thousand directions; shells burst and strike
 Vital parts of the body; elephants
 And horses mounted are blown up in space;
 The earth trembles under this infernal dance;
 A million heroes mounted on steeds
 Charge and capture the enemy's ordnance,
 Piercing through the smoke and shower of shells
 And rain of bullets; forward goes the flag,
 The emblem of victory, of heroism
 With the blood, yet hot, streaming down the staff,
 Followed by the rifles, drunk with war-spirit;
 Lo! the ensign falls, but the flag proceeds
 Onwards on the shoulder of another;
 Under his feet swell heaps of warriors
 Perished in battle; but he falters not.
 The flesh hankers for contacts of pleasure,
 The senses for enchanting strains of song,
 The mind hungers for peals of laughter sweet,
 The heart pants to reach realms beyond sorrow;
 Say, who cares exchange the soothing moonlight
 For the burning rays of the noontide sun?
 The wretch whose heart is like the scorching sun,
 --Even he fondly loves the balmy moon;
 Indeed, all thirst for joy. Breathes there the wretch
 Who hugs pain and sorrow to his bosom?
 Misery in his cup of happiness,
 Deadly venom in his drink of nectar,
 Poison in his throat--yet he clings to hope!
 Lo! how all are scared by the Terrific,
 None seek Elokeshi whose form is Death.
 The deadly frightful sword, reeking with blood,
 They take from Her hand, and put a lute instead!
 Thou dreaded Kali, the All-destroyer,
 Thou alone art true; Thy shadow's shadow
 Is indeed the pleasant Vanamali.
 O Terrible Mother, cut quick the core,
 Illusion dispel--the dream of happiness,
 Rend asunder the fondness for the flesh.


 True, they garland Thee with skulls, but shrink back
 In fright and call Thee, "O All-merciful!"
 At Thy thunder peal of awful laughter,
 At Thy nudeness--for space is thy garment--
 Their hearts sink down with terror, but they say,
 "It is the demons that the Mother kills!"
 They only pretend they wish to see Thee,
 But when the time comes, at Thy sight they flee.
 Thou art Death! To each and all in the world
 Thou distributest the plague and disease
 --Vessels of venom filled by Thine own hands.
 O thou insane! Thou but cheatest thyself,
 Thou dost not turn thy head lest thou behold,
 Ay, the form terrible of the Mother.
 Thou courtest hardship hoping happiness,
 Thou wearest cloak of Bhakti and worship,
 With mind full of achieving selfish ends.
 The blood from the severed head of a kid
 Fills thee with fear--thy heart throbs at the sight--
 Verily a coward! Compassionate?
 Bless my soul! A strange state of things indeed!
 To whom shall I tell the truth?--Who will see?
 Free thyself from the mighty attraction--
 The maddening wine of love, the charm of sex.
 Break the harp! Forward, with the ocean's cry!
 Drink tears, pledge even life--let the body fall.
 Awake, O hero! Shake off thy vain dreams,
 Death stands at thy head--does fear become thee?
 A load of misery, true though it is--
 This Becoming --know this to be thy God!


 His temple--the Shmashan among corpses
 And funeral pyres; unending battle--
 That verily is His sacred worship;
 Constant defeat--let that not unnerve thee;
 Shattered be little self, hope, name, and fame;
 Set up a pyre of them and make thy heart
 A burning-ground.
 And let Shyama dance there.

- Swami Vivekananda's Poetry Rendered from Bengali, CW-IV, p:506

Todays-Special 25-June in Swami Vivekananda Life

25 June, 1895 - Tuesday :  Inspired Talks

After every happiness comes misery; they may be far apart or near. The more advanced the soul, the more quickly does one follow the other. What we want is neither happiness nor misery. Both make us forget our true nature; both are chains — one iron, one gold; behind both is the Atman, who knows neither happiness nor misery. These are states and states must ever change; but the nature of the Soul is bliss, peace, unchanging. We have not to get it, we have it; only wash away the dross and see it.

Stand upon the Self, then only can we truly love the world. Take a very, very high stand; knowing out universal nature, we must look with perfect calmness upon all the panorama of the world. It is but baby's play, and we know that, so cannot be disturbed by it. If the mind is pleased with praise, it will be displeased with blame. All pleasures of the senses or even of the mind are evanescent but within ourselves is the one true unrelated pleasure, dependent upon nothing. It is perfectly free, it is bliss. The more our bliss is within, the more spiritual we are. The pleasure of the Self is what the world calls religion.

The internal universe, the real, is infinitely greater than the external, which is only a shadowy projection of the true one. This world is neither true nor untrue, it is the shadow of truth. "Imagination is the gilded shadow of truth", says the poet.

Strength

24 June : The Recurrence of Cosmic Cycles

ॐ वीरेश्वराय विद्महे विवेकानन्दाय धीमहि । तन्नो वीर: प्रचोदयात् । 

In his jnana yoga class "The Atman: Its Bondage and Freedom," held on the evening of January 8, 1896 (see chapter six, section six), Swamiji introduced the subject of the cyclic recurrence of forms, time without end, with these words: "The vast mass of mankind are content with material things, but there are some who become awakened and want to get back, who have had enough of the playing down here [Complete Works, 2: 259]. Along with this comes a very important question, and because I may forget it, I will discuss it now." He then went on (and with the kind permission of the Vedanta Centre, Cohasset, Massachusetts, I quote from Goodwin's transcript, which differs in spots from the same passage in the Complete Works):
     The question is why should we attempt to get our and get back to the centre. Suppose we have all come from God, but we find this world is pleasurable and nice; then we would rather try to get more and more of this. Why should we try to get out of it? The alpha and omega of Vedanta philosophy is to "give up the world"; that is the idea with which we started, giving up the unreal and taking the real. [But] why should we not turn towards enjoyment and not away from it?... The answer is this, that all these forms that we are seeing now are being manifested again and again, and we know that this world in which we live has been here many times before. I have been here and talking to you.... And many times more it will be the same.... This world has been here many times. We are all certain that this world will die and will be broken to pieces. Secondly, we see that these things periodically occur. Suppose there are three or four dice, and when we throw them one comes up five, and another four, and another three, and another two, and you keep on throwing and throwing. There must come times when those very same numbers will recur. Go on throwing, and no matter how long may be the interval, those numbers must come again. It can be mathematically asserted in how many throws they will come again; this is the law of chance. So with souls. However distant may be the period, these things are happening again and again, all these combinations and dissolutions. There is only a short rest, and then - and then this eating and drinking here comes back, and then death again....
     Along with this [idea] of throwing dice, comes [the] very interesting (view) that it was not the same soul, that this body is one link in the whole chain, and that the whole chain is composed of many links, beginning from the little worm, and let us hope ending in man, and these links form a circle, and this circle is revolving like the Ferris wheel at Chicago, the carriages of which are rolling forward all the time, but the occupants are changed. A soul goes into a carriage, goes through the circle, and comes out again. The wheel still goes on and on. All these forms are what is called permanent; cyclically the wheel revolves, showing all these forms, but you and I must get out. Different souls are riding in this wheel. This is how it can be explained that a man can read the past and future life of another man. The most astonishing powers of reading the past and the future have been known in every country and every age....
     This last sentence occurs in volume two of the Complete Works, at the beginning of paragraph two of page 261. It should be noted here that the remainder of the paragraph does not appear in Goodwin's transcript, according to which Swamiji went on to say that everything within the Ferris wheel - even the struggle to be free - acts according to law and is predictable.

- Appendix B : Swami Vivekananda in The West - New Discoveries [Vol-III; Page:555]

Today's-Special : 24-June in Swami Vivekananda Life

24th June, 1896 : To Swami Ramakrishnananda from London
DEAR SHASHI,
Max Müller wants all the sayings of Shri Ramakrishna classified, that is, all on Karma in one place, on Vairagya in another place, so on Bhakti, Jnana, etc., etc. You must undertake to do this forthwith. ... We must take care to present only the universal aspect of his teachings. . . .
Sharat starts for America tomorrow. The work here is coming to a head. We have already got funds to start a London Centre. .. — This London is the hub of the world. The heart of India is here. How can I leave without laying a sure foundation here? Nonsense! For the present, I shall have Kali here, tell him to be ready. ...
We want great spirit, tremendous energy, and boundless enthusiasm, no womanishness will do. Try to go on exactly as I wrote to you in my last. We want organisation. Organisation is power, and the secret of this is obedience.
24th June 1899 : Swami Vivekananda on his second voyage to West reached Madras

Renunciation

23 June : Swami Vive Kananda Here on a Mission

ॐ वीरेश्वराय विद्महे विवेकानन्दाय धीमहि । तन्नो वीर: प्रचोदयात् ।

One of the Delegates to the Parliament of Religions at the World's Fair Visits Minneapolis - enthusiastic over the Beauties of Minnehaha - a Benefactor to the Masses of India - projects for the Betterment of the Condition of His People - an Interesting Talk to The Tribune - lecture for the Peripatetic Literary Club.

A foreigner of dignified position, a Brahmin priest, Swami Vive Kananda, is a guest in the city for a few days. He was one of the delegates to the Parliament of Religions at Chicago and arrived in Minneapolis Tuesday [November 21] to remain over Friday, when he is to give a lecture in the evening at the First Unitarian Church for the Peripatetic Literary Club. He is stopping with friends during his stay.

Vive Kananda is an oriental in everything but dress, and this he will be tomorrow evening when he will give his lecture in the native priest costume. He is a man of little more than 30 years, with dark brown skin, coal black hair and jetty eyes. He is of medium height, compactly built, and with a highly intelligent cast of countenance from which beams kindliness and interest when in pleasant conversation. When Vive Kananda was found by THE TRIBUNE yesterday afternoon he was smoking a cigar, and he blew the smoke in grateful enjoyment far above his head. He had just returned from a trip to Minnehaha, and his frequent lapses into silence were interrupted by the emphatic expression "Hiawatha." He had read Long -fellow's poem far over in his Indian home in Calcutta, and he was delighted to have visited the scene of the legend. Kananda is not merely a casual visitor to this part of the world. He comes with a purpose strong, deep and earnest. He comes in the guise of a benefactor to the masses of India, the lower class people who dwell in ignorance and poverty.

In his native land he is one of thousands of mendicant monks who travel from village to town preaching the Brahmin faith. As a priest Vive Kananda is above all caste, and, in his own words, "I am my own man. I have no church. I bow to no one." His official title, "Swami" a word of Sanscrit origin, designates his position as "master," or as rabbi in other nations. He uses the English language with happy ease, and his speech is slow and dignified, while he speaks in low musical tones. His mission to this country is to obtain funds by his lectures, to return to India and establish an institute of learning for the ignorant masses who swarm through the country. In this errand he is an evangel, for no one has ever yet endeavored to better the condition of the lower classes.

Told by Vive Kananda, the story of his mission and his, coming to America is pleasing to hear. "I am, as you know " he says, "a monk, who with thousands of others travels about the land speaking to the people. As I traveled I was called to do a work that no one else had even attempted. I was called to journey into the new world. The people of India are a depressed race, and there are two reasons for their condition their ignorance and political oppression. They can never relieve themselves of the second calamity until they have overcome the first. So I undertake a pilgrimage to interest distant people, and when the time comes I shall return to establish a school for the masses."

Pressed further for details of his plan and for the location of his school, Kananda smiled. "It is in my brain yet, and I do not know where it will be," he said.

"I shall have thousands of workers to help me in the cause. India has her universities, and one of them contains 20,000 students, but it is only the higher class people who reap their benefit. The poor people work in the fields and labor, but education and the practical things of life are not their reward. I wish to start a school, and this is how I shall do it. These brother missionaries who are traveling about the country I shall call upon them and they will help. When the people gather in the fields at night and sit smoking after the toil of the day, a missionary will join their number, and little by little they will learn some of the things it will be good for them to know. In this way my school will be started. Then I shall have a training college, where sons of farmers will learn to be missionaries, and soon they, too, shall teach and by and by there will be a group of schools and colleges."

Vive Kananda grew more earnest as he dwelt upon his plans, and when accused in a friendly way of being an apostle in his work, he replied: "Apostle or no apostle, I do the work and the people of my land will be aided to help themselves." Kananda turns to America when he cannot and will not look to England, and his stay in this country will be regulated by the sympathy with which he meets.

His lecture tomorrow evening will be on the subject, "Brahminism," and while the audience will be limited to members and friends of the Peripatetics, he will probably remain in the city for a few days, since both Rev. Mr. Simpsons and Dr. Tuttle are desirous that the people of their churches shall hear him speak. In his travels through this country he conforms himself to the customs of the people with whom he is, and at table, in dress or conversation he is an agreeable and interesting person to meet. With one phase of missionary work as conducted in foreign lands he is not in sympathy, since he believes that the men who are most frequently employed as foreign missionaries are not always the worthiest for the position and place they are called upon to fill.

From Minneapolis Tribune, Thursday, November 23, 1893 A PRIEST OF BRAHMA [Swami Vivekananda in The West - New Discoveries, Vol-1, p489]

Todays-Special 23-June in Swami Vivekananda Life

23rd June, 1894 : To The Maharaja of Mysore - from -CHICAGO
No other nation applies so much machinery in their everyday work as do the people of this country.....
Nowhere on earth have women so many privileges as in America ...
No country on earth has so many laws, and in no country are they so little regarded...
...
My noble Prince, this life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive. One such high, noble-minded, and royal son of India as your Highness can do much towards raising India on her feet again and thus leave a name to posterity which shall be worshipped.

23 June 1900 : To Mary Hale on
I am determined to get rid of all sentimentalism, and emotionalism, and hang me if you ever find me emotional. I am the Advaitist; our goal is knowledge — no feelings, no love, as all that belongs to matter and superstition and bondage. I am only existence and knowledge.
.... "Mother" looks after me. She is bringing me fast out of the hell of emotionalism, and bringing me into the light of pure reason.

Starvation

22 June : world will always be a mixture of good and evil

ॐ वीरेश्वराय विद्महे विवेकानन्दाय धीमहि । तन्नो वीर: प्रचोदयात् ।

Dear Sister (Mary Hale),

The letters from India and the parcel of books reached me safe. I am so happy to know of Mr. Sam's arrival. I am sure he is "bewaring of the vidders" nicely. I met a friend of Mr. Sam's one day on the street. He is an Englishman with a name ending in "ni". He was very nice. He said he was living in the same house with Sam somewhere in Ohio.
I am going on pretty nearly in the same old fashion. Talking when I can and silent when forced to be. I do not know whether I will go to Greenacre this summer. I saw Miss Farmer the other day. She was in a hurry to go away, so I had but very little talk with her. She is a noble, noble lady.
How are you going on with your Christian Science lessons? I hope you will go to Greenacre. There you will find quite a number of them and also the Spiritualists, table turnings, palmists, astrologers, etc., etc. You will get all the "cures" and all the "isms" presided over by Miss Farmer.
Landsberg has gone away to live in some other place, so I am left alone. I am living mostly on nuts and fruits and milk, and find it very nice and healthy too. I hope to lose about 30 to 40 lbs. this summer. That will be all right for my size. I am afraid I have forgotten all about Mrs. Adam's lessons in walking. I will have to renew them when she comes again to N.Y. Gandhi has gone to England en route  to India from Boston, I suppose.
I would like to know about his "chaperon" Mrs. Howard and her present bereaved state. I am very glad to hear that the rugs did not go down to the bottom of the Atlantic and are at last coming.This year I could hardly keep my head up, and I did not go about lecturing. The three great commentaries on the Vedanta philosophy belonging to the three great sects of dualists, qualified dualists, and monists are being sent to me from India. Hope they will arrive safe. Then I will have an intellectual feast indeed. I intend to write a book this summer on the Vedanta philosophy. This world will always be a mixture of good and evil, of happiness and misery; this wheel will ever go up and come down; dissolution and resolution is the inevitable law. Blessed are those who struggle to go beyond. Well, I am glad all the babies are doing well but sorry there was no "catch" even this winter, and every winter the chances are dwindling. down. Here near my lodgings is the Waldorf - hotel, the rendezvous of lots of titled but penniless Europeans on show for "Yankee" heiresses to buy. You may have any selection here, the stock is so full and varied. There is the man who talks no English; there are others who lisp a few words which no one can understand; and others are there who talk nice English, but their chance is not so great as that of the dumb ones -- the girls do not think them enough foreign who talk plain English fluently.
I read somewhere in a funny book that an American vessel was being foundered in the sea; the men were desperate and as a last solace wanted some religious service being done. There was "Uncle Josh" on board who was an elder in the Presbyterian Church. They all began to entreat, "Do something religious, Uncle Josh! We are all going to die." Uncle Joseph took his hat in his hand and took up a collection on the spot!
That is all of religion he knew. And that is more or less characteristic of the majority of such people . Collections are about all the religion they know or will ever know. Lord bless them. Good - bye for present. I am going to eat something; I feel very hungry.
Yours affectionately,
Vivekananda
54 W. 33rd Street
New York,  22nd June, 1895

[From EPISTLES (Fourth Series), Letter XLVI, CW-VIII, page340]

Todays-Special 22-June in Swami Vivekananda Life

22nd June, 1895 : Letter To Kidi (Singaravelu Mudaliar), NEW YORK

DEAR KIDI,

I will write you a whole letter instead of a line. I am glad you are progressing. You are mistaken in thinking that I am not going to return to India; I am coming soon. I am not giving to failures, and here I have planted a seed, and it is going to become a tree, and it must. Only I am afraid it will hurt its growth if I give it up too soon. . . .

Work on, my boy. Rome was not built in a day. I am guided by the Lord, so everything will come all right in the end.

22nd June, 1895 : Letter To Mary Hale

22nd June, 1898 : Reached Srinagar

Duty

21 June : Swami Vivekananda on Shivaji

ॐ वीरेश्वराय विद्महे विवेकानन्दाय धीमहि । तन्नो वीर: प्रचोदयात् ।

“Shivaji was the greatest Hindu king that India had produced within the last thousand years; one who was the very incarnation of lord Siva, about whom prophecies were given out long before he was born; and his advent was eagerly expected by all the great souls and saints of Maharashtra as the deliverer of the Hindus from the hands of the Mlecchas, and as one who succeeded in the reestablishment of Dharma which had been trampled underfoot by the depredations of the devastating hordes of the Moghals. ”

“ Shivaji was one of the greatest national saviors who emancipated our society and our Dharma when they were faced with the threat of total destruction. He was a peerless hero, a pious and God-fearing king and verily a manifestation of all the virtues of a born leader of men described in our ancient scriptures. He also embodied the deathless spirit of our land and stood as the light of hope for our future.”

- Swami Vivekananda in an Evening-talk on Shivaji

 

It was a beautiful moonlit night and Swamiji was sitting in the verandah of the bungalow of the late Mr. Bhattacharjee on the South Beach of Madras (already referred to), conversing in Hindi with Mr. Munshi Jagamohanlal, the private secretary of the Maharajah of Khetri. This gentleman had been sent by the Maharajah to trace out the whereabouts of the Swamiji and to fetch him back to Khetri to bless the newly born son and heir to the State. When Swamiji was at Khetri about a year previously, the Maharajah of Khetri had begged of him to confer the boon of a son and Swamiji while he was in one of his higher moods had actually blessed him saying that God had granted his prayer. So the Maharajah wanted Swamiji back in his palace at any cost and could not remain contented until he saw him. When I went over there after my office work I prostrated before Swamiji and took my seat; and suddenly Swamiji began to sing a Hindi song in praise of Sivaji in his own masterly way, the last two lines of which were:—

दावा द्रुमदंड पर चित्ता मृग झुंड पर, भूषण बितंड पर जैसे मृगराज हैं ।
तॆज तम अंशपर काह्न जिम कंसपर, त्यॊंमिलेच्छवंसपर शर शिवराज हैं ॥

(As forest-fire is to the forest trees, a leopard to the deer-herds and a lion to the stately elephants; as the sun is to the darkness of the night, as Krishna was to Kansa, so was king Sivaji, a lion, towards the hordes of Mlechchas.)

It was a long song as I learnt it afterwards; but I who had learnt in my school days that Shivaji was a cunning unprincipled freebooter, ‘an upstart robber,’ a marauder and a treacherous murderer, suddenly interrupted Swamiji and asked him how that praise and those lines were justified in the case of Shivaji. Was he not a mere child of fortune, a marauder who collected similar men like himself and succeeded in establishing a kingdom by sheer cunning and treachery? Swamiji immediately gave up his singing and saw me full in the face, his face being lit up with the fire of indignation and said, “Shame on you, Doctor. You are a Mahratta and still that is all you know of the greatest king that India had produced within the last three hundred years; one who was the very incarnation of Siva, about whom prophecies were given out long before he was born; and his advent was eagerly expected by all the great souls and saints of Maharashtra as the deliverer of the Hindus from the hands of the Mlechchas and one who succeeded in the establishment of the Dharma which had been trampled under foot by the depredations of the devastating hordes of the Moghals. This is what comes of your reading Indian History written by foreigners who could have no sympathy with you, nor could they have any respect for your culture, traditions, manners and customs which they could not understand. Is there a greater hero, a greater saint, a greater bhakta and a greater king than Shivaji? Shivaji was the very embodiment of a born ruler of men as typified in your great Epics. He was the type of the real son of India representing the true consciousness of the nation. It was he who showed what the future of India is going to be sooner or later, a group of independent units under one umbrella as it were, i.e., under one supreme imperial suzerainty.” I was simply thunderstruck and seemed to myself so small, so foolish and so ignorant; still the spirit of enquiry in me could not be put down even by those eloquent and fiery words of indigna-tion which Swamiji gave expression to, for I thought whatever might be said of Shivaji there could be no explanation for his treacherous conduct towards Afzul Khan, the great Pathan commander sent from the court of Bijapur, whom he is said to have killed under circumstances which any one who has a spark of morality in him could not but abhor. Still with some amount of hesitation but with a mischievous curiosity to find out how Swamiji could condone this treacherous deed of Shivaji, I begged of him to tell us something about the real life-history of Shivaji and what he thought of his one act which had been considered the greatest blot in his life and on account of which his character had been painted so black.

Then Swamiji began to give a brief account of the life of Shivaji, with great feeling and enthusiasm and we listened to the same with great eagerness and rapt attention; for so engrossing and interesting it was to listen to those soul-stirring words of Swamiji who spoke at the time with so great an earnestness and yet with so much pity and kindness. It was a pity there was no one to take down all that he spoke that evening in shorthand, nor did I make any notes at the time either, for my mind was so absorbed in following his narrative that the idea of taking down any notes never entered my brain. Yet the indelible impressions he made on even our callous hearts that memorable evening do still persist though somewhat dimmed, and the following is but an imperfect reproduction of those impressions.

“Doctor,” began Swamiji, “it is a pity that in our schools, History of India written by foreigners alone is taught to our boys. The foreign writers of the Mahratta History can never shake off their bias nor understand the real character and greatness and the inner motive of the actions of Sivaji. We cannot blame them for their beliefs which more or less depended on the writings of the Mussalman chroniclers who out of spite and hatred, denounced Sivaji as a falim or freebooter. On the other hand there are many Mahratta bakhars or chroniclers who have written about him but who, true to their ancient puranic ideal, looked upon Sivaji as an incarnation of God born to relieve His devotees from the oppressions of Mahomedan fanaticism and to re-establish the Dharma. Naturally the foreign writers leaned on the side of the Mussalman chroniclers and considered the account given by the Mahrattas as mere superstition. But fortunately there are many independent Persian manuscripts dealing with the history of Aurangzeeb, Shivaji and the Bijapur kings. They corroborate the account of the Mahratta chroniclers so far as facts are concerned, though they do not share in their belief of the superhuman nature of the exploits of Shivaji. And if young men who have any patriotic feeling towards the history of their motherland were to make researches in finding out and translating these manuscripts much truer light may be thrown on the greatness of the doings of Sivaji and of many others who helped in the formation of the great Mahratta Confederacy and it will be a valuable addition to our knowledge of the real His-tory of India.” (Vedanta Kesari : November 1914, p. 218-219)

Todays-Special 21-June in Swami Vivekananda Life

21 Jun 1896 : Lecture: "The real and apparent man" at Royal Institute of Painters In Water Colours, 191 Picadilly, London. Transcribed by Goodwin and brought out in pamphlet form by Mr. Sturdy. Subsequently, included in the book, Jnana Yoga.

In this the task that Swami Vivekananda gives to us is :
If one millionth part of the men and women who live in this world simply sit down and for a few minutes say, "You are all God, O ye men and O ye animals and living beings, you are all the manifestations of the one living Deity!" the whole world will be changed in half an hour. Instead of throwing tremendous bomb-shells of hatred into every corner, instead of projecting currents of jealousy and evil thought, in every country people will think that it is all He. He is all that you see and feel. How can you see evil until there is evil in you? How can you see the thief, unless he is there, sitting in the heart of your heart? How can you see the murderer until you are yourself the murderer? Be good, and evil will vanish for you. The whole universe will thus be changed.

Think : Can I be in that one millionth part of d men n women which Swamiji wanted?

Law of Karma