16th Issue Hindol April 2013

ij
ARTIST : SITA RAY
Whatever is left over after defraying the expenses of the Calcutta meeting, remit for famine relief,
or help with it the countless poor that live in the slums of Calcutta; let Memorial Halls and things of
that kind go to the dogs. The Lord will do what He thinks best Curtail the expenses of worship to
a rupee or two per mensem. The children of the Lord are dying of starvation Worship with
water and Tulasi leaves alone, and let the allowance for His Bhoga be spent in offering food to the
Living God who dwells in the persons of the poor - then will His grace descend on everything.
(From letter written to Swami Brahmananda on July 10, 1897)
Nor angel I, nor man, nor brute,

Nor body, mind, nor he nor she,
The books do stop in wonder mute
To tell my nature; I am He.
Before the sun, the moon, the earth,
Before the stars or comets free,
Before e'en time has had its birth,
I was, I am, and I will be.
Not two nor many, 'tis but one,

And thus in me all me's I have;
I cannot hate, I cannot shun
Myself from me, I can but love.
From dreams awake, from bonds be free,
Be not afraid. This mystery,
My shadow, cannot frighten me,
Know once for all that I am He.
- Swami Vivekananda (1895)
G
M? , L A
, S ,
L M, &5
5, 1
Hindol
Year 5, No. 1
, 1420
Editorial Team :
Chittaranjan Pakrashi, Jayanti Chattopadhyay,
Malabika Majumdar, Maitrayee Sen,
Ajanta Dutt, Nandan Dasgupta
April, 2013
Swami Vivekananda 150 Years Special

Guest Editor:
Narayani Gupta
E-46, Greater Kailash-I,

New Delhi-110048
ohetuk.sabha@gmail.com
98110-24547
Front Cover Profile:

Debasish Bhattacharya
Back Cover:
Shanu Lahiri
Front Inside Cover:
Sita Ray
ISSN 0976-0989
S
^ S
-630, M? , ~-110019
92131344879891689053
Artists:
Shanu Lahiri
V.S. Rahi
Prabir Kumar Das
Debasish Bhattacharya
Young Artists:
Arijit Sengupta
Anamika Adhikari
Photos:
Brahmachari Ganendranath
Satyaki Saha
Sourabh Sengupta
Debangana Chakravorty
http://www.scribd.com/collections/3537598/Hindol
S
4
Narayani Gupta
Editorial
Pravrajika Bhavaprana
Service To Man The Highest Religion
17
Amiya P. Sen
Modern Hinduism
and Swami Vivekananda
30
Gangeya Mukherji
Vivekanandas
Memoirs of European Travel
40
Uma Dasgupta
Book Introduction
44
R.V. Smith
Jesus Nose
48
Mandar Mitra
Discovering the Musician in

Swami Vivekananda
54
Maitrayee Sen
Translations of Tagore Songs
58
Nandan Dasgupta
Book Introduction
66
68
82
105
120
135
137
148
154

A

S
&5
i
- &
Vive Kananda - /
-
his issue of Hindol brings together reflections on

Vivekananda by scholars and critics, and short excerpts from
his own writings. The philosopher is read in the context of
contemporary debates, the activist comes across vividly as someone
with a sense of urgency, anxious that what he began should continue
after him, and needed therefore to be viable in terms of finances
and of human resources. He is impatient with the absurd practices
that divide the peoples of India, and reminds his European and
American friends that the Indians need not the spiritual food offered
by missionaries, but nutrition. We see a young man who has a sense
of fun, loves music and enjoys singing, who makes friends easily,
across region, belief-systems and countries - letters included here
include ones to friends in the USA and England, Calcutta, Madras,
Khetri and Junagarh.
What a wonderful time that was when steam and electricity
had reduced distances, and when thoughts were literally penned
and then printed, not abbreviated by the use of the telephone and
the computer. It would be interesting to compare the journeys
westward of Bengali intellectuals the long one via the Cape by
Ram Mohun Roy in 1831, the shorter post-Suez ones of Rabindranath
in 1878 and of Vivekananda in 1893.
Think of Vivekanandas crowded hour of glorious life of less
than 40 years. In the fourteen years after he became a sannyasi, he
spent seven in the USA, Britain and Europe. These made him aware
of the irrevocable changes being wrought by industrialisation,
followed by the progress towards democracy, the emancipation of
women, and concern with education and public health.
At the same Chicago Worlds Fair where Vivekananda addressed
his sisters and brothers of America, Frederick Jackson Turner made
the dramatic announcement about the geographical completion of
the USA project - The frontier has gone the moving frontier
which to him was the explanation for American individualism. For
Indians in the 19th century there were other frontiers to be explored.
On his journey to the USA Vivekananda had made friends with J N
, 1420
5
Tata, who was to write to him five years later, in 1898, about his
dream of sponsoring a research institute. Thus was conceived the
Indian Institute of Sciences, set up in Bangalore in 1909.
At Chicago in 1893, Vivekananda and other delegates from
India spoke at the Parliament of the Worlds Religions. His historic
speech has been discussed by contributors to this issue. This
Parliament was part of the monumental Worlds Fair held at
Chicago to mark the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus
landing on what he had hoped was the coast of India. It was the
sixth of the Worlds Fairs of the nineteenth century, extravaganzas
that celebrated technology, industrialization and imperialism. The
first of them had been the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London in
1851, where India both British and princely had been
prominently displayed, and had been crowd-pullers. (I do not know
how much India, or British India, figured at the Chicago Fair other
than at the Parliament of Religions).
The smoke-filled jerry-built city of Chicago was a sharp contrast
to the blue skies and rich forests of west Canada through which
Vivekananda had travelled after landing in North America. I am
not aware that his writings contain any comments on Chicago, or
any comparisons to that other city of dreadful night (James
Thomsons term for London in an 1873 poem, which Kipling used
to describe Calcutta in 1888, a transferred epithet that was to cling
to that city). Chicago, a busy industrial hub, was defiantly grubby.
To Indians the 1893 Fair is synonymous with Vivekananda, but for
Americans its achievement was that it shook the citizens out of their
lethargy and into working for a better city. The architect Daniel
Burnham had created a new landscape when he designed the
spacious Fair on the bank of Lake Michigan. When the Fair ended,
he was able to convert the euphoria it had generated into a sense of
urgency to transform Chicago into the Paris of the Prairie.
Vivekananda must have looked up at the citys skyline. Burnhams
own Rand McNally Building, the first all-steel skyscraper, followed
by others designed by the architects of the Chicago School, was
shaping what today appears as the archetype of the American urban
skyline.
At the turn of the century Chicagos ground-line was made clean
and attractive by the citizens groups that worked energetically to
create cleanliness and beauty. Burnhams 1906 Plan for Chicago
, 1420
6
transformed the city. It was a few years after this, in 1911, that
Calcutta was given a similar opportunity the city acquired its
Improvement Trust, and E P Richards was sent out to make a
Calcutta Plan. (A single crumbling copy of this incredibly detailed
and thoughtful project, with its superb maps, lies in the National
Library.) To the best of my knowledge no Indian in 1911 was excited
by the possibilities of transforming Calcutta into a modern city as
had happened in the Chicago that had become familiar to them
because of Vivekananda. In 1912 Bengalis were preoccupied with
the shock of losing their status as capital, and with the modifications
to administrative demarcations which is popularly referred to as
the reunification of Bengal (Incidentally, with hindsight one might
wonder whether retaining the 1905 partition would not have averted
the more permanent Partition of 1947?)
During his stay in Paris in 1900, Vivekananda met Patrick
Geddes, the idiosyncratic Scottish visionary, philosopher and urban
planner, who followed a very different trajectory from that of
Burnham. Fourteen years later, Geddes was invited to India to show
his remarkable exhibition on the evolution of towns. Geddes
travelled all over the country much as Vivekananda had done, but
with a different agenda to urge Indians to recognise the beauty of
their historic towns and to be critical of the direction that the design
of western cities was taking. He became a close friend of
Rabindranath and of Jagadish Chandra Bose (whose biography he
wrote). One of the ifs of history hinges on the fact that Vivekananda
and Rabindranath were two years apart in age, and the latters
creativity flowered in the first four decades of the twentieth century,
which Vivekananda had hardly seen what would have been his
reaction to the swadeshi movement, to militant nationalism, to
Gandhiji ?
Among the letters reproduced in this volume are some which
indicate his wide-eyed astonishment at his encounters with the
independent women of America, so different from the memsahibs
he might have encountered in India (one wonders whether he had
occasion to meet Mary Curzon, the redoubtable Viceroys vivacious
American wife who, like Vivekananda, died so tragically young?)
Astonishment soon gave way to warm friendships, and to his
decision to create spaces in India where young people from the West
could come to share in the study of Vedanta so in 1899 he founded
, 1420
7
the Advaita Ashram in the tranquillity of Kumaon at Mayavati.
When Vivekananda was in Britain in 1895, he met Margaret
Noble. Later, after she followed him to Kolkata and became known
as Sister Nivedita, she was to write The Web of Indian Life, with a
Foreword by Rabindranath, and dedicated to Patrick Geddes, who,
by teaching me to understand a little of Europe, indirectly gave me
a method by which to read my Indian experiences. She was to
express her admiration of Abanindranaths austere Bharat Mata,
painted in 1905. Again one wonders what Vivekanandas reaction
to this portrayal would have been?
The 20th century began in Kolkata in a charged atmosphere of
the plague epidemic, militant nationalism, as well as earnest
discussions about creating institutions for scientific research and
cultural revival.
In writings on modern Indian history, the political seemed to be
all-important in defining the zeitgeist. The concept of civilisation
in its literal derivation to do with urban living, citizenship, and
the cultural life which a city could catalyse could have flowered
splendidly in Calcutta, which was then a beautiful and animated
city, even if crowded and in need of urban improvements. But it
was allowed to atrophy. The conversations, and dreams about
building new institutions or creating new world-views - articulated
by individuals who were truly international - Rabindranath,
Vivekananda, Nivedita, Geddes, and members of the India Society
set up by E B Havell in 1910 - were not sustained and continued.
There was a flight from the city, which had begun with the new
century and Vivekanandas last major enterprise, of establishing
the Belur Math, as pointed out in an essay in this journal.
Rabindranath pursued his dream in Santiniketan. As for Geddes,
he became Professor of Sociology in Bombay University. The
moment was lost.
Much later, when commentaries on Rabindranath and
Vivekananda began to be written, they were for most part little
better than hagiography, perhaps the greatest disservice one can
do to any individual.
Narayani Gupta
Narayani Gupta retired as Professor of History at Jamia Millia Islamia,
and has written on Indian urban history and on conservation.
, 1420
PHOTO : BRAHAMACHARI GANENDRANATH
I have determined first to build some place for Mother, for women
require it first.... You have not yet understood the wonderful
significance of Mother's life - none of you. But gradually you will
know. Without Shakti there is no regeneration for the world. Why
is it that our country is the weakest and the most backward of all
countries? Because Shakti is held in dishonour there. Mother has
been born to revive that wonderful Shakti in India; and making
her the nucleus, once more will Gargis
and Maitreyis be born into the world.
Dear brother, you understand little
now, but by degrees you will come to
know it all. Hence it is her Math that I
want first.... Without the grace of
Shakti nothing is to be accomplished.
What do I find in America and Europe?
- the worship of Shakti, the worship
of Power. Yet they worship Her
ignorantly
through
sensegratification. Imagine, then, what a lot
of good they will achieve who will
worship Her with all purity, in a
Sattvika spirit, looking upon Her as
their mother! I am coming to
understand things clearer every day,
my insight is opening out more and
more. Hence we must first build a
Math for Mother...To me, Mother's
grace is hundred thousand times more
valuable than Father's. Mother's grace,
Mother's blessings are all paramount
to me.... Of Ramakrishna, you may
aver, my brother, that he was an
Incarnation or whatever else you may
like but fie on him who has no
devotion for the Mother
From letter to Swami Shivananda (earlier Tarak
Nath Ghoshal) from the USA in 1894
, 1420
9
Pravrajika Bhavaprana
Sarada Mission
Hauz Khas, New Delhi
Service to Man The Highest Religion
The Bhagavat Gita (XIII.13) chants: 'With hands and

feet everywhere, with eyes, heads and mouths everywhere,
with ears everywhere in the universe - That exists pervading
all.'
The Infinite is manifested in the universe. The world
and God are not two separate entities. God or Brahman alone is real.
He is infinite Consciousness. From Him the universe comes and to
Him it returns. The Taitriya Upanishad says, 'It exists pervading
everything.' When you reach the goal and see God everywhere, every
moment is a moment of worship because you are in God, you are
surrounded by God.
Swami Vivekananda, after his historic return from the West in 1897,
said 'This is the only god that is awake, our own race - everywhere his
hands, everywhere his feet, everywhere his ears, he covers everything.
All other gods are sleeping. What vain gods shall we go after and yet
cannot worship the god that we see all around us, the Virat? When
we have worshipped this, we shall be able to worship all other gods.'
Swamiji reiterated that each person is intrinsically divine and that

divinity is manifested through duty, dharma, education and spiritual
practice. He exhorted people to worship that divinity by serving him.
For him, this was worship. Sri Ramakrishna had enjoined that one should
respect the God in everyone and one's service should be service to that
God - Shiva jnane jiva seva - :
, 1420
10
Service to Man - The Highest Religion
Swamiji had said that service was one of the two national ideals of
India, the other being renunciation. Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi
embodied these ideals. Service was both her means of realization and
method of ministration of spirituality. Traditionally, gurus are recipients
of service while aspirants are servers. But in the case of Mother, it was
just the opposite. All her life she served. From the time she was a mere
child to the last day of her life when she was literally worshipped by
thousands of devotees as the Divine Mother incarnate, her life was a
ceaseless stream of service. But her service was an expression of the
contentment of self-effacement born of perfect knowledge of the Self.
Swamiji had a sharpness of perception and assimilation that helped
him pick up many gems from the talks of Sri Ramakrishna. He was
able to assimilate many tips and hints on practical Vedanta that were
helpful in benefiting the individual and the collective. The invaluable
mantra Shiva jnane jiva seva, Swamiji received from Sri Ramakrishna.
One day Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his room surrounded by
his devotees including Swami Vivekananda who was still Narendranath
then. Explaining the essence of Vaishnavism, Sri Ramakrishna said,
'That doctrine teaches that one should always be careful to observe three things,
namely, a taste for God's name, kindness to all beings and service to devotees
One should have the conviction in one's heart that the whole universe belongs
to Sri Krishna and, therefore, one should have compassion for all beings.' No
sooner did Sri Ramakrishna utter the words 'compassion for all beings'
that he suddenly went into ecstasy. Regaining partial consciousness,
he continued, 'Talk of compassion for beings. Insignificant creature that you
are, how can you show compassion for all beings? Who are you to show
compassion? You wretch, who are you to bestow it. No, no, it is not compassion
to jiva (beings) but service to them as Shiva.'
All heard those words spoken in ecstasy but none could understand
their hidden import at that time. It was Swamiji alone who said,
'Ah, what a wonderful light have I got today from Sri
Ramakrishna's words. What a new and charming gospel have we
received today through those words of his, wherein a synthesis
has been effected of sweet devotion to the Lord with Vedantic
knowledge which is generally regarded as dry, austere and lacking
in sympathy for the suffering of others. Whenever I get the
opportunity, I will preach this wonderful doctrine of Shiva gnane
jiva seva, serving God in each living being.'
, 1420
Later, Swamiji was able to put this mantra into practice. After his
return from America, Swamiji had acquired land in Belur and
established the Ramakrishna Math. He was not keeping well and had
gone to Darjeeling to rest. Meanwhile, plague broke out in Kolkata.
Many died and there was no one to take care of the sick or dispose of
the dead bodies. The news reached the broad-hearted Swamiji who
immediately ordered all the inmates of Belur Math to get busy with the
service and care of the affected. Many monks protested saying, 'This is
not our work, Sri Ramakrishna had never told us to do social service.
Our main aim is to seek God and perform sadhana.' Swamiji thundered
at them saying, 'O my brothers, have you forgotten the mantra of our Master,
Shiva jnane jiva seva. By serving human beings we are serving the highest
expression of God on this earth. Love the Lord in the suffering patients. I
appeal to you to come forward in this calamity and serve the living God.'
The monks were stunned to hear these words and many saw the
truth in them but someone still protested, 'O Swamiji, from where will the
money come?' To this Swamiji replied, 'If need be sell off the Belur Math.
The money would be used for the service of these men. I care not for home or
shelter for ourselves; we are sanyasis and have taken the vow of poverty. Trees
will provide shelter and a loin-cloth is enough to cover us.' Thus he managed
to engage all the monks, householder devotees of Sri Ramakrishna and

inmates of the Belur Math in the service of the afflicted. The British
authorities in their report on the epidemic had recorded that due to the
timely help from the Math, mortality was less and the epidemic was
brought under control faster.
In the past, Vedanta had been considered a philosophy only for
recluses who sought salvation by self realization but Swamiji maintained
that the fundamental doctrine of Vedanta, namely, the basic divinity of
the jiva has a message for men in all stations of life. The central ideal
of Vedanta is Oneness. There is but One Life, One World, One Existence,
everything is that One; the difference is in degree and not in kind. It
can be instrumental for the re-education of the ego into a new
consciousness of one's inherent strength and thus promote man's selfconfidence and power of self-expression. Next, practical Vedanta
teaches that man is the best symbol for the worship of God while
Swamiji accepted prayer to God and adoration of him in temples and
meditation on Him as an essential part of spiritual discipline, he stressed
, 1420
11
12
that an equally important aspect of worship lies in the service of God

in man. Thus, a true Vedantin can work out a program of education,
health, social uplift and so on, not merely as secular service but as
worship of God in man - a discipline equal to, if not more potent than
the traditionally accepted form of worship.
Thus for him, the Yoga of Jnana, Bhakti, Karma becomes an
integrated discipline. The wide-ranging spiritual legacy that he has left
for us can be best described in his own words 'Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity
within by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either
by work, or worship, or psychic control or philosophy, by one or
more or all of these - and be free. This is the whole of religion.
Doctrines or dogmas, or rituals or books or temples or forms are
but secondary details.'
If one comprehends that by serving a fellow human being, one is

actually serving God, then only will one be able to perform his duty
without vanity and with a spirit of detachment. It is this philosophy, it
is this spirit, which should be the ideal of service and it is this belief
which we have to imbibe while rendering service in our own humble
way.
Worshipping the living gods and goddesses is the way to the
purification of the heart. Swamiji said, 'The poor, the illiterate, the downtrodden - let these be your gods and goddesses. Know that service to man is
the highest religion.' At once, the ever-inspiring lines of Swamiji's famous
poem, 'To a Friend' flash in our minds:

From highest Brahman to the yonder worm,
And to the very minutest atom,
Everywhere is the same God, the All-Love;
Friend, offer mind, soul, body, at their feet.
These are His manifold forms before thee
Rejecting them, where seekest thou for God?
Who loves all beings, without distinction,
He indeed is worshipping best his God.
May Swami Vivekananda give us the strength, the necessary

wisdom to put into practice his doctrine of this new ritual of the modern
age.
, 1420
13
,
S 26

&
S p f
( (
e ~ S
, + 26 g
S
-

,
La 26
, , ,

, 1420
14
The Visionary
Looking out across the sea from the rock at Kannyakumari, Swami
Vivekananda chalked out his plans. As he says elsewhere, "it is hard
uphill work, for we have first to create a taste, then teach, and lastly
proceed to build up the whole fabric." We extract from his letter from
the USA to the Diwan of Junagarh, whom he had befriended during
his tour of India between 1890 and 1893, describing these plans.
Shri Haridas Viharidas Desai
CHICAGO
20th June, 1894
Dear Diwanji Saheb,

...Primarily my coming has been to raise funds for an enterprise
of my own. Let me tell it all to you again.
The whole difference between the West and the East is in this:
They are nations, we are not, i.e., civilisation, education here is general,
it penetrates into the masses. The higher classes in India and America
are the same, but the distance is infinite between the lower classes of
the two countries. Why was it so easy for the English to conquer India?
It was because they are a nation, we are not. When one of our great
men dies, we must sit for centuries to have another; they can produce
them as fast as they die. ...Why so? Because they have such a bigger
field of recruiting their great ones, we have so small. A nation of 300
millions has the smallest field of recruiting its great ones compared
with nations of thirty, forty, or sixty millions, because the number of
educated men and women in those nations is so great. Now do not
mistake me, my kind friend, this is the great defect in our nation and
must be removed.
Educate and raise the masses, and thus alone a nation is possible.
Our reformers do not see where the wound is, they want to save the
nation by marrying the widows; do you think that a nation is saved by
the number of husbands its widows get? Nor is our religion to blame,
for an idol more or less makes no difference. The whole defect is here:
The real nation who live in cottages have forgotten their manhood,
their individuality. Trodden under the foot of the Hindu, Mussulman,
or Christian, they have come to think that they are born to be trodden
, 1420
15
under the foot of everybody who has money enough in his pocket.
They are to be given back their lost individuality. They are to be
educated. Whether idols will remain or not, whether widows will have
husbands enough or not, whether caste is good or bad, I do not bother
myself with such questions. Everyone must work out his own salvation.
Our duty is to put the chemicals together, the crystallisation will come
through God's laws. Let us put ideas into their heads, and they will do
the rest. Now this means educating the masses. Here are these
difficulties. A pauper government cannot, will not, do anything; so no
help from that quarter.
Even supposing we are in a position to open schools in each village
free, still the poor boys would rather go to the plough to earn their
living than come to your school. Neither have we the money, nor can
we make them come to education. The problem seems hopeless. I have
found a way out. It is this. If the mountain does not come to
Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain. If the poor cannot
come to education, education must reach them at the plough, in the
factory, everywhere. How? You have seen my brethren. Now I can get
hundreds of such, all over India, unselfish, good, and educated. Let
these men go from village to village bringing not only religion to the
door of everyone but also education. So I have a nucleus of organising
the widows also as instructors to our women.
Now suppose the villagers after their day's work have come to their
village and sitting under a tree or somewhere are smoking and talking
the time away. Suppose two of these educated Sannyasins get hold of
them there and with a camera throw astronomical or other pictures,
scenes from different nations, histories, etc. Thus with globes, maps,
etc. - and all this orally - how much can be done that way, Diwanji?
It is not that the eye is the only door of knowledge, the ear can do all
the same. So they would have ideas and morality, and hope for better.
Here our work ends. Let them do the rest. What would make the
Sannyasins do this sacrifice, undertake such a task? - religious
enthusiasm. Every new religious wave requires a new centre. The old
religion can only be revivified by a new centre. Hang your dogmas or
doctrines, they never pay. It is a character, a life, a centre, a God-man
that must lead the way, that must be the centre round which all other
elements will gather themselves and then fall like a tidal wave upon
, 1420
16
the society, carrying all before it, washing away all impurities. Again,
a piece of wood can only easily be cut along the grain. So the old
Hinduism can only be reformed through Hinduism, and not through
the new-fangled reform movements. At the same time the reformers
must be able to unite in themselves the culture of both the East and
the West.
Now do you not think that you have already seen the nucleus of
such a great movement, that you have heard the low rumblings of the
coming tidal wave? That centre, that God-man to lead was born in
India. He was the great Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, and round him
this band is slowly gathering. They will do the work. Now, Diwanji
Maharaj, this requires an organisation, money - a little at least to set
the wheel in motion. Who would have given us money in India? - So,
Diwanji Maharaj, I crossed over to America. You may remember I
begged all the money from the poor, and the offers of the rich I would
not accept because they could not understand my ideas. Now lecturing
for a year in this country, I could not succeed at all (of course, I have
no wants for myself) in my plan for raising some funds for setting up
my work. First, this year is a very bad year in America; thousands of
their poor are without work. Secondly, the missionaries and the Brahmo
Samajists try to thwart all my views. Thirdly, a year has rolled by, and
our countrymen could not even do so much for me as to say to the
American people that I was a real Sannyasin and no cheat, and that I
represented the Hindu religion. Even this much, the expenditure of a
few words, they could not do! Bravo, my countrymen! I love them,
Diwanji Saheb. Human help I spurn with my foot. He who has been
with me through hills and dales, through deserts or forests, will be
with me, I hope; if not, some heroic soul would arise some time or
other in India, far abler than myself, and carry it out. So I have told
you all about it. ...You are at liberty, my friend, to think that I am a
dreamer, a visionary; but believe at least that I am sincere to the
backbone, and my greatest fault is that I love my country only too, too
well. ... My debt to you is immense, not only because you are my friend,
but also because you have all your life served the Lord and your
motherland so well.
Ever yours in gratitude,
VIVEKANANDA
, 1420
17
Amiya P. Sen
Delhi
Modern Hinduism and

Swami Vivekananda
In this essay I argue that the growth of a modern Hinduism,

important as it was to the self-reflexivity of colonized
Indians, carried within itself, certain incipient conflicts,
some of which were quite sharply manifest in the life and
thought of Narendranath Dutta (monastic name, Swami
Vivekananda). In hindsight, this looks a trifle paradoxical. On the one
hand, the Swami is known to have contributed significantly towards
forging a synthetic unity of Hindu belief and practice; on the other, he
also appears to have amplified and carried forward certain ruptures
and inconsistencies inherited from the reigning Hindu cultural
discourse. Admittedly, he was the first proto-type of the Englishspeaking, idiosyncratic, modern guru and in modern India, perhaps also
the first religious figure to gain a near pan-Indian status. Such facts
notwithstanding, Vivekananda also appears to have been trapped by
the contrary social and ideological pulls of his times. This justly leads
us to question the much acclaimed unity of new Hinduism to which
he is believed to have meaningfully contributed.
At the outset, we must be prepared to admit that the underlying
nature of the Hindu 'awakening' of the nineteenth and early twentieth
century is palpably different from what is often taken to be. For one,
contrary to commonplace claims, the self-understanding of nearly every
major Hindu thinker of the period was couched in essentially religious
terms. Particularly in colonial Bengal, which provides us the social
and historical context to much of Vivekananda's life and work, many
, 1420
18
Modern Hinduism and Swami Vivekananda
thinkers argued for a religious reformation preceding the social - a

preference reiterated by the Swami himself : "Meddle not with social
reform for there cannot be any reform without spiritual reform first"
(Letter to Alasinga Perumal, 1895). But let us cite an even earlier
example. Though justly famous for his fearless crusade against sati,
this was perhaps the least original of Raja Rammohun Roy's several
agendas and interventions. That the practice had really no roots in the
most venerated of Hindu scriptures (the Vedas) had already been
pointed out by two of the Raja's contemporaries or nearcontemporaries: the British Orientalist, Henry Thomas Colebrooke and
Pandit Mritunjoy Vidyalankar, an orthodox scholar employed by the
Fort William College in Calcutta. The Raja, as it occurs to me, was
far more original in his innovative and courageous reading of Hindu
and Christian scriptures. In modern times, he was the first to
emphatically state that individual salvation (moksha) was not
contingent on world renunciation alone and that the pious householder
(brahmanistha grihastha) could equally lay claim to this. He may have
also been the first person to not only translate shruti (select Upanishads
and Badarayan's Brahma Sutra) into Bengali and English but also
consign these to print. This at once rendered public that which was
meant to be entirely esoteric and traditionally accessible to only select
social castes and classes.
More importantly though, the interpretative concepts or categories
that Rammohun worked with were not so much the 'religious' and the
'secular' as 'good' religion and the 'bad'. In Rammohun's understanding,
Indian self-expression had to be essentially religious in character. In
part, this may have been a legacy of British Orientalism, which, among
other things, labelled the Indic civilization as quintessentially 'religious'
and lent greater credibility to the idea that the 'purity' or 'authenticity'
of a religious tradition was directly proportional to its historically
established age. In other words, the farther back one travelled in time,
the greater was the likelihood of recovering the 'authentic' religion of
the Hindus. Rammohun too suggested that cultures degenerated with
time and here, it would be important to remember that this idea of
degenerative time may be found in both Protestant theology and the
Hindu yuga theory. In nineteenth century Calcutta, the 'crisis of Kali
yuga' became a favourite trope in Bengali cultural production,
, 1420
increasingly captured in popular bazaar paintings, songs, farces and

satires.
It is also ironical that Rammohun, who kept referring to the Vedas,
had no familiarity with their chronologically oldest part, the samhitas.
By Vedas, Rammohun essentially meant the Upanishads, a fact that
may be easily contrasted to the position adopted by Swami Dayanand
Saraswati. Of the Vedas themselves, Vivekananda too seems to have
not much idea. In colonial Bengal, genuine Vedic scholarship can be
associated only with the civilian R.C.Dutt and Pandit Satyavrata
Samashrami. Quite interestingly, the Hindu political and cultural
awakening in modern Bengal came to rest on a text (the Gita) that did
not have the canonical status of shruti. On an all India scale, more
commentaries on the Gita were written in the 19th and early 20th
centuries than in the preceding five centuries. The fact that by 1850s,
the reformist Brahmo Samaj had given up faith in the infallibility of
the Vedas made it even more difficult to establish Bengali Hinduism
on some traditionally acceptable pramana (valid proof or authority).
It was a fact that some Brahmos as well as the Bengali novelist and
thinker, Bankim Chandra, were to later rue.
There was a further problem with the way Bengali Hindus sought
to determine their religious tradition. In effect, they seem to have been
caught between two stools. In the 1880s, Bankimchandra himself was
to write the following:
"Let us revere the past, but we must, in justice to our new life,
adopt new methods of interpretation and adapt the old, eternal
and the undying truths to the necessities of that life"
When closely examined, this statement can be bewildering since

'truths' could at best be adopted, not adapted. Now Bankim believed
that traditional ideas or practices had to be suitably adapted so as to
make them more useful to the times. He says that quite pointedly in
the preface to his commentary on the Gita. At the same time, in using
the term 'adapt', Bankim also contradicts himself since a relative theory
of values cannot also be an explication of values. We could detect in
this one of the fundamental contradictions in the Hindu Bengali
awakening of the 19th century. There is, on the one hand, the strategic
search for a stable and unchanging body of 'truths' and on the other,
a positive acknowledgement of historicism which suggests that every
, 1420
19
20
generation constructed its own 'truths'. The substance of this

contradiction deeply entered the discourse of Swami Vivekananda as
can be judged form his rather tenuous relation to his chosen
philosophical tradition. Vivekananda situated himself in the guru
parampara of Acharya Sankara and his philosophical non-dualism
(Advaita) and yet deviated sharply from these in several ways. For
instance, unlike Sankara, he privileged personal spiritual experience
(anubhava) over textual exegesis, found parallels between the
methodology of science and that of Vedantic gnosis and took social
service to be an integral part of Advaita Vedanta. Even when making
such radical departures from his guru, why did Vivekananda have to
still situate himself in that tradition? Difference and dissent had always
been a part of Hindu philosophical tradition but in pre-modern India,
the critics of Sankara like Ramanuja and Madhva, had the courage to
establish their own independent schools of thought. For reasons not
yet convincingly explained, modern Hindus were quite reluctant to do
this. Much before Vivekananda, Rammohun too claimed to follow
Sankara and yet propagated the idea that women and sudras too had
the right to shruti, a position radically contrary to that of Sankara. In
hindsight, such ambivalence seems to have only strengthened
orthodoxy and weakened the capacity for original and independent
thought. It would be quite reasonable to say that allowing for some
exceptions, modern Hindu thinkers have gravitated more towards the
history of philosophy rather than original philosophical thought. It
cannot be entirely fortuitous that this trend is best represented by
another well known follower of Advaita Vedanta, Sarvepalli
Radhakrishnan.
The Hindu renaissance of the 19th and early 20th centuries also
put great emphasis on religious eclecticism and universalism. This is
evident in the life and labours of Rammohun who was a polyglot and
equally at home with the Hindu, Islamic and Christian traditions; in
the Brahmo missionary, Keshab Chandra Sen, whose Nababidhan
Church tried to synthetically fuse religious symbols and artefacts taken
from diverse religions but perhaps most tellingly in the Hindu mystic
Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa whose universalist values were founded
on actual spiritual praxis. What often gets overlooked though is that
some of those who made the strongest case for religious universalism
, 1420
could barely conceal their cultural pride as Hindus. One of the last
works of Rammohun, The Universal Religion (1829) is based almost
entirely on Hindu-Brahmanical sources and Sri Ramakrishna himself
was heard to say that while new fangled religions came and went,
Sanatan Hinduism alone had the capacity to endure. Both Rammohun
and Vivekananda used the terms Vedanta and Advaita Vedanta
interchangeably when, in truth, non-dualism was only one of the several
philosophical positions within the school of Vedanta. Arguably, such
cultural preferences often clouded rational judgment known to exist
in tradition. Here one could recall the instance of Swami Dayanand
Saraswati, who took the Vedas to be the repository of all knowledge.
Importantly, this overturns the argument put forth by no less a man
than Acharya Sankara that even the Vedas could not be trusted if they
were to claim, contrary to empirical experience, that fire was by nature
cold! In effect, Sankara quite pragmatically argued that even shruti
could not serve as the authority for that which could be tested on the
strength of our everyday experiences.
(ii)
Three major influences may be found to have shaped the life and
work of Swami Vivekananda: Brahmanical orthopraxy, Anglican
Protestantism and a first-hand experience of India and Indians. The
first the Swami acquired in the company of his guru, Sri Ramakrishna,
the second through his modern, English language education and the
third, through his extensive travels, traversing the length and breadth
of India, camping with both princes and paupers.
The earliest transformation in Vivekananda has to do with a quest
for God. The young Narendranath was greatly comforted by
Ramakrishna's assurance that God was a tangible Reality, someone who
could indeed be 'seen' or 'felt'. What was required though was the
spiritual practitioner's ability to ascend to an appropriate stage of
spiritual development or else depend upon God's grace. In essence,
this signalled the dismantling of a deistic god who, in the analogy of
the English philosopher, William Paley, was related to his creation in
the manner of a watch maker to the watch. This was a distant and
disinterested god who took no part in the everyday worldly functions.
After the 1860s, however, Europe began substituting such notions for
, 1420
21
22
a more openly theistic stance wherein God embodied pure love and
moral excellence and where man and the universe were related to Him
more integrally. This was a God that marched through history and left
worthy examples for man to follow. The Brahmo Samaj of which
Narendranath was initially a member, did very much accept an
immanent, personal God but categorically rejected His being cast in
any anthropomorphic form. For many people, this quite wantonly kept
out the aesthetic and emotive content in religion. Men were rational
beings but equally, they were poets. Sri Ramakrishna, on the other hand,
seemed to offer a practical resolution to the problem in two related
ways. First, he preached a religious eclecticism which admitted a wide
variety of personal preferences. Second, he denied that religions were
created by men. This made it even less justifiable for people to
passionately and self-righteously push truth-claims. The multiplicity
of religious perceptions, as Ramakrishna put it, reflected some
inscrutable Divine Play (in his oft repeated idiom, lila). Men did not
understand religions differently but were made to understand it in
different ways. From this sprang the concept of adhikarbheda, a graded
system where belief or practice could be made to vary in keeping with
both the social origins and spiritual capacity of men but where,
nonetheless, each path adopted was valid in its own way. There could
be as many religious paths as human opinion, Ramakrishna would say;
religions were like so many languages with each man choosing that
which most naturally suited him. From this perspective, it was possible
to reconcile idolatry to an uncompromising rejection of idolatrous
worship and to assert that common or popular ways of worship were
not necessarily more at fault morally. What ultimately mattered were
Kalighat, Calcutta
PHOTO : SOURABH SENGUPTA
, 1420
men's intentions, not their methods. If a toddler could call its father
only 'pa' as opposed to 'papa' that an older sibling could, would the
father be any less pleased, asked Ramakrishna? In the opinion of the
saint, this helped to shed religious bigotry and made man more humble
about truth-claims. Ramakrishna's greatest teaching to his favoured
pupil, Vivekananda, was that 'toleration' itself was a most intolerant
word: it was as though one had wrongfully appropriated superiority
to oneself and looked upon others with some pity and condescension.
"Why should I tolerate," the Swami himself was later heard to say,
"toleration means that I think you are wrong and I am just allowing
you to live" (Complete Works: II: 373-74).
Sri Ramakrishna, as it is only too well known, distrusted social
service and philanthropy, especially of the pretentious type. His
objections here were that when in a Kali temple, a man's first objective
was to venerate the goddess, not to dole out charity. Vivekananda, on
the other hand, appears to have taken a view that appears to be its
very opposite. There is a strong affinity here between his views and
those of Rabindranath when it comes to criticising a religious culture
that so lovingly fed and washed lifeless images and icons, totally
oblivious of the 'living' man who continued to suffer from illness and
starvation. Not surprisingly, the two men he most admired after his
own guru were the Buddha and the Bengali philanthropist, Vidyasagar,
both famed for their compassion. Quite uniquely Vivekananda also
claimed that Karma Yoga or selfless action in this world did not have
to be founded on any notion of God or religion. Evidently, this is not
the Karma Yoga of the Gita where nishkam karma is joined to the
idea of surrendering the fruits of one's actions to God. Ramakrishna
considered religion the defining quality of an ideal human life, his
favoured pupil humanized religion. And whereas Ramakrishna adhered
to the older prescription of adhikarbheda by which men and women
were spiritually differentiated in keeping with their social and spiritual
standing, Vivekananda, more in the manner of Rammohun, tried to
usher in a spiritual democracy by categorically rejecting adhikarbheda.
The pupil, however, also came to share some of the guru's
prejudices. Notwithstanding his bold and unequivocal claim at the
World Parliament of Religions (Chicago, 1893) that Hindus such as
he took all religions to be true, Vivekananda, (in the manner of Sri
, 1420
23
24
Ramakrishna) carried a certain revulsion for radical theologies and

quotidian cults, made infamous for their free gender-mixing and
persistent questioning of upper caste norms. Ramakrishna's spiritual
quest took him to Kartabhaja and Nabarasik congregations in north
Calcutta but he also labelled them to be 'dirty paths'. Both Ramakrishna
and Vivekananda were harshly critical of certain forms of tantra,
especially the radical, left-handed (Vamachar) variety. The Swami even
extended this disapproval to emotional displays in religion.
Vivekananda once cautioned Sister Nivedita to stay clear of the Tagore
family for the 'erotic venom' that they had spread through their writings.
This accusation had to be primarily directed at Rabindranath and in
all probability, to some of the sensuous poetry in Kodi O Komal. In a
sense this subverts the great emotional impact that Vaishnav poetry
and songs had made on Bengali religious culture since the days of
Chaitanya. Such reactions, however, may be understood in the light
of bhadralok anxieties with respect to the figure of Krishna. Faced
with persistent missionary accusations regarding 'scandalous' episodes
from the Bhagavat Purana, modern Bengali literature looked to create
a more sanitized Krishna. Bankimchandra, himself, as some may recall,
would not accept the existence of Radha for a long time. His Krishna
was almost exclusively drawn from the Mahabharata; it had little or
no foundation in the legends concerning the pastoral Krishna of Vraja.
Vivekananda himself once advised the Swadeshi leader, Ashwini
Kumar Dutta, to indiscriminately use his whip whenever he heard
Radha-Krishna kirtans.
Much as he spoke of a spiritual revolution preceding the social,
Vivekananda often foisted upon the spiritual world, concerns
essentially derived from the active social world of men and women.
When delivering his 'Practical Vedanta' lectures at London (1896), the
Swami expressed great unhappiness at Advaita being worked only upon
the spiritual plane. Advaita Vedanta, Vivekananda argued, was nothing
if not also translatable into a plan of social and political action, again
sharply deviating from his own paramaguru, Acharya Sankara. If
anything, the non-dualism of Sankara was transcendental in character,
far removed from considerations of social utility as Vivekananda
argued. The irony here is that the Swami himself rejected this very
notion of usefulness or utility:
, 1420
"We are asked what good is your religion to your society? Society
is made the test of Truth. Now this is very illogical. Society is only
a stage in the growth which we are passing (through)......Society is
good at a certain stage only but it cannot be an ideal, it is in constant
flow" (Complete Works: VI: 144)
As the above passage would no doubt indicate, Vivekananda

was capable of alternating between an historical-positivist view of
religion and the perennial-transcendental. Hinduism was to him a living
reality to be historically analysed and socially modulated. At the same
time, apparently, he also chose to treat it as a timeless abstraction.
Though gifted with an acute sense of history (he was to predict the
Socialist revolutions in Russia and China), he often refused to
understand Hinduism historically. Vivekananda made much of the fact
that as a religion, Hinduism had no historically known founder. This,
he hoped, would establish it as a truly universal and perennial religion.
(iii)
We may conclude by referring to another important and interesting
discrepancy that occurs in Vivekananda's attempt to define key terms
like 'Hindu' and 'Hinduism'. On his return to India from the West in
1897, the Swami made extensive tours of his country, stopping at major
Indian cities to deliver hugely popular lectures. One of these that I
wish to more closely examine here is titled 'The Common Bases of
Hinduism', delivered at Lahore later that year. In this lecture that runs
into more than twenty printed pages, Swami Vivekananda begins by
defining ideas and beliefs that he believed to be common to all Hindus
as for example, a theistic belief in God, veneration of the Vedas, belief
in Atman (soul) and the laws of Karma and the idea of an eternal and
uncreated world. In this view, the terms Hindu and Hinduism become
practically inseparable. However, in the course of the same address
the Swami also entered a new discourse whereby the term 'Hindu'
acquires new dimensions:
"....then alone you are a Hindu when the very name sends through
you a galvanic shock of strength. Then and then alone you are a
Hindu when every man that bears that name, from any country,
speaking our language or any other language becomes at once the
nearest and dearest to you. Then and then alone you are a Hindu
when the distress of anyone bearing that name comes to your heart
and makes you feel as if your son was in distress" (Complete Works:
III:379)
, 1420
25
26
Cable Car - California, 1900
, 1420
Ever since I have had occasion to re-visit this particular speech

by Vivekananda, I have marvelled at how disconcertingly close this
comes to the way Savarkar was to later define the terms 'Hindu' and
'Hindutwa'. The following statement of Vivekananda might have been
lifted from Savarkar himself:
"Typically, the word Hindu covers not only Hindus proper but
Mahommedans, Christians, Jains and other people" (Complete
Works: III: 118).
It is by no means my intention to suggest that Vivekananda was

the forerunner of Hindutwa ideology. Quite clearly, there are many
sharp differences between the two figures under discussion. For one,
the spiritually dynamic Vivekananda is incompatible with the avowedly
atheist Savarkar. More importantly though, whereas the underlying
quest in Savarkar was political mobilisation, the Swami is known to
have rejected political praxis and forbidden his followers to give any
political tilt to his message. Nonetheless, in this instance, Vivekananda
appears to have suffered from that which also characterised many other
Hindu spokesmen of his period: confusing the term 'Hindu' in its
broadly geo-cultural sense with the more narrowly religious.
Admittedly, it was somewhat naive of him to believe that such fuzziness
of definitions would go unnoticed by non-Hindu communities that
were, at the time, beginning to more confidently and aggressively speak
for themselves.
Perhaps more than anything else, Swami Vivekananda was a patriot
but a patriot produced within the framework of what Bankim Chandra
once called 'non-political patriotism'. Vivekananda once told Sakharam
Ganesh Deuskar, a political figure of the time, " Sir, as long as a dog
of my country remains without food, to feed and take care is my
religion, anything else is either non-religion or false religion". (Life of
Swami Vivekananda: 644). Like the Marathi reformer Mahadev Govind
Ranade in his time and Gandhi after him, Vivekananda appears to have
believed that without the social emancipation of the masses to support
it, political freedom would be meaningless. This explains his repeated
emphasis on mass education and 'man making'. The Swami rejected
the reformism of the English educated middle classes for the important
reason that this did not seem to touch upon the real problems
confronting the people. Whereas self-determination was a right that
, 1420
27
28
had to be vigilantly exercised by the people themselves, such reformism

tamely surrendered the initiative to outside agencies and institutions:
"As for religious sects", he writes at one place, "- the B(rahma) S(amaj),
A(rya) S(amaj) and other sects have been useless mixtures, they were
only voices of apology to out English masters to allow us to live"
(Letter to Mary Hale, 30th October, 1899). As a philosopher,
Vivekananda was not very original; that honour may more justifiably
go to Sri Aurobindo. As a social reformer too, the Swami could be
quite conservative, especially with respect to woman related reform.
His outstanding quality, nonetheless, was his capacity to remind man
of his innate divinity and to be deeply absorbed in commonplace and
everyday human problems, to weep with the deprived and the poor, to
fraternise with the oppressed and the socially marginalised. Also, the
Swami had great faith in what positive human intention could realize.
Whereas cows would always remain cows, he quipped, only man had
the capacity to outgrow himself. Vivekananda revelled in sharing a
smoke with the 'lowly' cobbler as much as he enjoyed reproducing
verbatim, page after page, of Pickwick Papers. At the metaphysical
level, non-dualism may have meant to him a single order of Reality.
On the other hand, when speaking on behalf of a subject nation (India)
Vivekananda understood this as a newly found human will that could
equip man to overthrow political subjection. Not surprisingly,
Vivekananda once told a disciple that societies in Europe and America
were better equipped to accept Vedanta for, at such places, men were
less constrained by fetters placed on their freedom. Spirituality was
not simply about routine religious practices but also regaining one's
inner poise and self-confidence: abhaya as Vivekananda called it.
Courage naturally came to a man who realized that he was potentially
Divine. Advaita Vedanta taught that ultimately, there was nothing but
the imperishable Atman and Vivekananda believed that having realized
this Truth, a man could transcend his mundane existence, attaining
both fulfilment and eternal freedom.
( Professor of Modern Indian History, Jamia Millia Islamia, New
Delhi, Amiya P. Sen has written extensively on the intellectual
and cultural history of modern India including on
Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Swami Vivekananda)
, 1420
29
Absolute Vedantist
Whether we call it Vedantism or any ism, the truth is that
Advaitism is the last word of religion and thought and the only position
from which one can look upon all religions and sects with love. We
believe it is the religion of the future enlightened humanity. The Hindus
may get credit of arriving at it earlier than other races, they being an
older race than either the Hebrew or the Arab; yet practical Advaitism,
which looks upon and behaves to all mankind as one's own soul, is yet
to be developed among the Hindus universally.
On the other hand, my experience is that if ever the followers of
any religion approach to this equality in an appreciable degree in the
plane of practical work-a-day life it may be quite unconscious
generally of the deeper meaning and the underlying principle of such
conduct, which the Hindus as a rule so clearly perceive it is those of
Islam and Islam alone.
Therefore I am firmly persuaded that without the help of practical
Islam, theories of Vedantism, however fine and wonderful they may
be, are entirely valueless to the vast mass of mankind. We want to lead
mankind to the place where there is neither the Vedas, nor the Bible,
nor the Koran; yet this has to be done by harmonising the Vedas, the
Bible and the Koran. Mankind ought to be taught that religions are but
the varied expressions of THE RELIGION, which is Oneness, so that
each may choose that path that suits him best.
For our own motherland a junction of the two great systems,
Hinduism and Islam - Vedanta brain and Islam body - is the only hope.
I see in my mind's eye the future perfect India rising out of this
chaos and strife, glorious and invincible, with Vedanta brain and Islam
body.
Ever praying that the Lord may make of you a great instrument for
the help of mankind, and especially of our poor, poor motherland.
Yours with love,
VIVEKANANDA
From letter written from Almora to Mohammed Sarfraz Husain of Nainital, June 10,
1898 as quoted by Jawaharlal Nehru in "The Discovery of India"
, 1420
30
Gangeya Mukherji
Chitrakoot
Uttar Pradesh
Travelling Overseas:
Vivekananda's Memoirs of
European Travel
Travel, particularly overseas travel, indicated an important

component of modern experience for most prominent
individuals in 19th century India. For many of them,
involving as it did an exposure to the different cultures and
to national ideas and governments, travelling to the west
and the sharing of its experiences with compatriots was in a way central
to the modern identity. The great reformer Raja Rammohun Roy
explained his longstanding desire of visiting Europe in his
Communications to the Board of Control written for the Select
Committee of the House of Commons which had been appointed in
1831 to consider renewal of the Charter of the East India Company and
which invited him to make a representation before the committee.
Characteristically for the progressive Indian of the times, he admired
Europe and he stated that he had somewhat seriously studied on topics
related to western thought and culture, and observed some of its
prominent practices, and acknowledged to have been significantly
impressed, and convinced that, in Europe literature was zealously
encouraged and knowledge widely diffused; that mechanics were almost
in a state of perfection, and politics in daily progress; that moral duties
were, on the whole, observed with exemplary propriety notwithstanding
the temptations incident to a state of high and luxurious refinement;
and that religion was spreading, even amidst skepticism and false
philosophy. Rammohun had over the years made plans for travelling
to the west to ratify his impressions by personal observation and
, 1420
Vivekananda's Memoirs of European Travel
experience. He was able to execute his plans only in the closing years
of his life, sailing from Calcutta on the 19th of November, 1830, to
arrive in England on the 8th of April the following year. He did not
however, regard acquiring only a personal knowledge of the west as
being a self-contained purpose for him. It was important for him to
communicate mainly to his countrymen whatever was noteworthy in
the west, and very significantly, issues relating to excellences attained
by women were intended to occupy a substantial portion of his travel
records. The particulars of my voyage and travels will be found in a
Journal which I intend to publish; together with whatever has appeared
to me most worthy of remark and record in regard to the intelligence,
riches and power, manners, customs, and especially the female virtue
and excellence existing in the country.
Vivekananda was easily among the most widely travelled Indians
of the 19th century. Before embarking on his first visit abroad he had
journeyed across the country acquainting himself extensively with the
socio-economic reality of India. The success of his visit to America
and England, and the nature of his objectives soon called for further
travel overseas once he had toured the country again on his return to
India in 1897. By December next year he was actively considering a
visit to Europe and America in the summer of 1899. However, his ill
health was causing concern to his brethren and an acute attack of asthma
in December made many fearful as to threats of a shorter span of his
life. He was soon undergoing medical treatment from Mahananda
Kaviraj who advised a long sea voyage for restoration and Vivekananda
was urged by his companions to start as early as possible in view of his
continuously deteriorating health. He wrote to Christine Greenstidel in
April A sea voyage will be very good indeed, and also just now my
conscience is free, having started some work for the plague in Calcutta
Are you coming to England this summer? Can you, for a trip? It will be
such a pleasure to see you but you will scarcely recognize me when
you see me again, I have grown old old and decrepit. Two years of
suffering has taken away twenty years of my age. Well, but the soul
changeth not. Does it? It is there, the same mad-cap Atman. Mad upon
one idea, intent and intense. The travel commencing June 20, 1899
appeared to agree with him and by mid July he was writing in his letter
to Christine Greenstidel from the ship in Suez that, I was so bad in
, 1420
31
32
health that in India my heart went wrong all the way This trip has
almost made a new man of me. I feel much better and, if this continues,
hope to be quite strong before I reach America.
Vivekananda wrote the travelogue in Bangla, in a quite
uncharacteristic vein of lightness and ironic humour, in a series of
articles entitled Parivrajaka for the incipient Bangla journal, Udbodhan
of the Ramakrishna Mission. It was commented that the detailed
description of the surrounding landscape and of the human scene such
as contained in the Parivrajaka is not found from the Swamis pen in
regard to any other period of his life. It was translated into English as
Memoirs of European Travel for The Complete Works of Swami
Vivekananda where the editor noted that the lightness of the tone of the
Bangla original was impossible to render in English. One of his
biographies reinforces the impression that urbanity is the presiding note
of this travelogue. The long ocean voyage appears to have been not
only physically beneficial to the Swami, but mentally relaxing as well.
Reading his Memoirs of European Travel, a good part of which he
wrote on board ship, one gets the impression that the author was on an
open-ended vacation without any serious business on hand or in view.
His vast fund of knowledge, his wide ranged information, his detailed
observation of his immediate surroundings poured through his pen in a
most entertaining manner, sparkling with wit and fun. Indeed, this
unique production, which unfortunately loses in translation much of
its native spirit and humour, shows that, if the Swami wished, he could
have been the Mark Twain of Bengali literature.
The primarily humorous tone of the early part of the travelogue
should not be taken to deflect attention either from the general
seriousness of the content or the inclemency of travel in a racially
colonized world. His letters to friends from on board the ship and his
talks with his companions including Turiyananda and Nivedita, indicate
his preoccupation with his plan of work and his thinking on themes of
history and culture. Alongside expatiating on concepts of religion and
spiritual liberation to his companions, he would be exasperated at the
ill informed and racially prejudiced comments of some of his fellow
passengers and occasionally with an angry retort dismiss such notions.
It would be relevant at this point to also indicate the complications
which had been associated with foreign travel in traditional Indian
, 1420
society as has been described in travel accounts by some distinguished

Indians during the only slightly earlier decades to the time of
Vivekanandas voyage during the latter half of the 19th century, when
ritual violations regarding commensality and the like entailed by sea
voyages could be seriously considered as potent cause for social
ostracism. On the other hand, codes regarding commensality were to
some extent observed even outside the country by at least some very
courageous individuals notably, not out of timidity but out of their own
convictions. Regarding Rammohun Roy, a report in the Times observed
on a dinner hosted in his honour by the East India Company that, the
Brahmin confined himself only to rice and cold water from fare
which included delicacies such as turtle, venison and champagne.
Mentioning this incident in his study on Rammohun, Amiya Sen
remarks: Even in the 1890s, at a time when Hindu orthodox attitudes
were hardening, Swami Vivekananda had the courage to ridicule openly
his followers who insisted that he ate only Hindu food and presumably,
Rammohun might have done the same.
Surendranath Banerjea has recalled in his reminiscences the
demanding nature of foreign travel in the early years, during his first
trip to England along with Romesh Chunder Duttt and Behari Lal Gupta
in 1868. They were all still in their teens, and a visit to England was a
more complicated affair than it subsequently became with the passage
of some years which improved conditions of travel and made it more
accessible to a larger number of Indians. Banerjea specifically referred
to the potentially socially deleterious consequences that could arise
from overseas travel.
It not only meant absence from home and those near and dear to
one for a number of years, but there was a grim prospect of social
ostracism, which for all practical purpose has now happily passed
away. We all three had to make our arrangements in secret, as if
we were engaged in some nefarious plot of which the world should
know nothing. My father was helping me in every way, but the
fact had to be carefully concealed from my mother, and when at
last on the eve of my departure the news had to be broken to her,
she fainted away under the shock of what to her was terrible news.
Moreover, there were real perils involved with a long sea voyage
with the Suez not yet navigable, and only some decades earlier a funereal
atmosphere surrounded the departure for Europe. He described the
, 1420
33
34
gradual change in the general air of overseas travel up to the times

when he himself travelled to England.
In those days a trip to England seemed to our people to be even
more perilous than a voyage to the North Pole. Things were much
worse still in the days of Ram Mohun Roy, and his biographer
tells us that Dwarkanath Tagores house from which the Raja
started for his ship, was filled with an eager crowd of visitors who
had thronged to have their last look at one whom they believed
they were never again to see alive. Our attitude has now greatly
changed; and it is one of the many signs of the transformation that
has taken place within the last fifty years.
Banerjea recorded however, that he and his friends thoroughly

enjoyed the voyage and the new information it brought including its
ports of call.
Foreign travel could be seen as framed in an attitude of questioning
and with social reform, and associated with germinating irreverence
towards tradition. Moreover, the obvious social advantages of western
education particularly if acquired in England, and a genuine desire for
enrolling in the great centres of learning in the west could now be more
easily realised with the technological advances in maritime travel. It
should be mentioned that Vivekananda himself described in some detail
the variety of sea vessels and a skeletal history of the improvement in
their sea worthiness, in the initial section of his travelogue. Charles
Heimsath points out the social implications in their own society of the
increased frequency in European visits by young Indians.
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 made personal connections
with Britain and Europe comparatively easy for the wealthy or
for those who could obtain sponsorship for their travel. Scores of
men returned from England and hundreds of other vigorous Indians
spread dissatisfaction with their society throughout the land.
The reception accorded in Indian society to the returnees from a

travel abroad was far from cordial. Surendranath Banerjea recalled with
gratitude that his mother and his family, now without his father, who
had passed away while Surendranath was still in England, bravely
welcomed him into its folds. His fathers displayed non conformism in
food and drink, shocking to his own father, had been observed, winked
at and forgotten and forgiven by Hindu society. But travel overseas
was another matter altogether.
, 1420
The leaders indeed applauded the courage of the members of my

family in taking me back into the old home, but the whole attitude
of Hindu society, of the rank and file, was one of unqualified
disapproval. My family was practically outcasted. We were among
the highest of Brahmins; but those who used to eat and drink with
us on ceremonial occasions stopped all intercourse and refused to
invite us.
The situation changed with time, and writing around 1925, he was
able to say that things had appreciably improved.
A sea-voyage or a visit to Europe no longer involves the loss of
caste. Among the Brahmins, especially in the mofussil, there may
be some squeamishness in the matter; but among other castes, a
man may visit any part of the world he likes, cross the seas as
often as he pleases, and yet retain his social status as a member of
the caste. That the Brahmins will soon be on a line with the other
castes does not admit of a doubt; it is only a question of time.
In the 19th century itself, another great reformer, Dayananada

Saraswati in the Satyartha Prakash in 1874, strongly argued for overseas
travel, ridiculing the traditional injunction against it and enumerated
the many merits of crossing oceans as widening of mental horizons
and as a catalyst of social change. It is an interesting piece of writing
and encapsulates a mix of arguments both for and against traditional
practices which was particularly characteristic of the Arya Samaj. It
might be recalled that Nivedita mentioned Vivekanandas explanation
that the original prohibition of sea travel as it incurred loss of caste
status was traceable to the great reverence of Hindus for the ocean,
forbidding them to defile it by crossing it. This, as Rammohuns
avoidance of inter-racial dining, also demonstrates the generally
complex Indian attitude towards custom and change. It may be useful
to refer in detail to the relevant passage from the Satyartha Prakash.
In ancient times, the people of Aryavartta travelled all over the
globe for political and trade purposes. The bogie of untouchability
and loss of religion current in these days is due to misrepresentation
and ignorance. Those people, who do not hesitate to go to other
countries, come in contact with various people, know their customs
and manners, expand their kingdom and business, acquire
boldness, imbibe their merits, shake off their own weakness and
thus become powerful. When you see no loss of religion in
intercourse with low-born, mean and dirty persons as prostitutes
, 1420
35
36
and others and have scruples in coming in contact with excellent

persons of foreign countries, what is it if not your ignorance? One
thing we admit of course. Those who eat flesh and drink wine,
have their bodies, virile fluid and other bodily elements corrupted.
In coming in contact with them, there is a risk of the Aryas
contracting those evil habits. But, if they accept their good points
and leave their bad points, then there is no harm associating with
them Religious imposters think that if they would educate the
people and allow them to go to foreign lands then the latter would
become wiser, would not fall into the meshes of their fraud and
the former would consequently lose their importance as well as
their livelihood. It is why they impose restrictions on inter-dining
and fashion of dress and object to foreign travels.
It was in this historical context that Vivekananda set out from

Calcutta for the West. On the occasion of his departure on 20 June,
1899, the Holy Mother gave a sumptuous lunch for him and his brethren,
and gave her blessings. Vivekananda embarked on the steamship
Golkonda, reaching London after forty two days. Thereafter, touring
Europe and America he reached Egypt. He finally boarded the ship
Rubbatino in November 1900 for returning to India and reached Bombay
on 6 December, 1900. This trip to the west was comparatively quieter
than his earlier eventful tour of 1893-1896. During the course of his
latter tour he was mostly in a meditative mood. As mentioned above,
the Memoirs are not uniformly humorous and there is a change to his
characteristic thoughtful attitude and a graver theme and tone sets in
along the way. The tone is reminiscent of the great English essayist
Charles Lamb for a substantial part of the early section and it is a mix
of consummate mixing of the humorous/frivolous with learned
references to canonical works in Sanskrit and some vernaculars as
Vivekananda begins with humorously quoting from some of the Sanskrit
epics to decry his ability to keep a diary of his travel, confessing to
having put off beginning work on the travelogue by first seven days
due to innate laziness, and as he modestly puts it, other preoccupations.
He also seriously points out the essential commitment of his life which
had led him to continuously travel across the country with so many
scenic destinations and even though he had seen and observed the greatly
variegated beauty of nature he had so far not felt disposed to describe
them in his writings which had till then been of a different quality
, 1420
altogether.
I beg your pardon, you have entrusted your work to a nice man! I
owe you a description of the sea-voyage for seven days which
will be full of poetry and interest, and be written in a polished,
rhetorical style, but instead of that I am talking at random. But the
fact is, having striven all my life to eat the kernel of Brahman,
after throwing away the shell of Maya, how shall I get the power
of appreciating natures beauties all of a sudden?
He obliquely satirises the imaginative felicity of poets who

unhesitatingly describe scenic beauty without ever having seen them.
The irreverent vein continues for some more pages as he comments on
even cherished traditions of faith, seemingly ironical for a man of
profound faith as he was but as it is said, that sometimes a humorous
and apparent irreverence indicate an equanimous faith which is too
resilient to become anxious over playfulness and humour. This is highly
significant regarding any appraisal of Vivekanandas writings and
conversations on religious topics as his occasionally playful dismissal
of disputations from his brethren which are referred to by commentators
as evidence of orthodoxy and intolerance, may not necessarily express
literal meanings but rather a sportive turn of topic.
It may be relevant to refer in detail to the priceless humour on the
revered river Ganga. He initially describes the unique position of the
Ganga in the Hindu tradition and the magnetic attraction of the river in
the Hindu mind as it flows powerfully down the upper reaches of the
Himalayas. What wonderful relation is this between mother Ganga
and the Hindus? Is it merely superstition? May be. The reader is
evidently let in to share the authors faith in the divine river, some of
which he carried with him in his travels in the west and drops of which
he so emotively sipped during moments of mental upheaval in the west
and was instantly calmed. At this point he introduces a delightful note
of playful satire on unarguable doctrine and contemporary concerns of
racial purity. He dwells on the Ganga water which Turiyananda had
kept in a jar and which is obviously shaking with the movements of the
ship. He expresses a mock anxiety with Mother Gangas impatience
at her captivity and her apparent desire to force her way out of the
container, re-enacting her turbulent descent from heaven to the earth
on the matted locks of Shiva whereafter she had wreaked havoc on
, 1420
37
38
mountains and mountainous elephants alike. He describes his ardent

prayers to the river as water in the jar to desist in her intent till they
reached Madras where she would have enough rock like, shaven and
tufted heads to break. It is worth quoting from the text at this point.
But all my supplications were in vain. Mother would not listen to
them. Then I hit upon a plan, and said to her, Mother, look at
those turbaned servants with jackets on, moving to and fro on the
ship, they are Mohammedans, real, beef-eating Mohammedans,
and those whom you find moving about sweeping and cleaning
the rooms etc., are real scavengers, disciples of Lal Beg; and if
you do not hear me, I will call them and ask them to touch you!
Even if that is not sufficient to quiet you, I will just send you to
your fathers home; you see that room there, if you are shut in
there, you will get back to your primitive condition in the
Himalayas, when all your restlessness will be silenced, and you
shall remain frozen into a block of ice. That silenced her. So it is
everywhere, not only in the case of gods, but among men also
whenever they get a devotee, they take an undue advantage over
him.
Then Vivekananda confesses that he has yet again deviated from

his subject. It is as if he is writing in a stream of consciousness technique.
And periodically and apparently, attempts to return to the topic at hand!
I have told you at the outset that these things are not in my line, but if
you bear with me, I shall try again.
Kedar Ghat, Benares
PHOTO : SATYAKI SAHA
, 1420
This is followed by a detailed and highly pictorial description of

the Gangetic bank, and yet again in the midst of verdant scenery the
reader is pulled up short with a serious disquiet with avaricious
industrialisation. In the hands of money-grabbing merchants everything
will disappear. The description of the changing topography of the river
bed of the Ganga as it flows into the Bay of Bengal; a brief chronological
sketch of the European settlements; the art of ship building and ship
sailing; historical outlines of passing lands along the Bay of Bengal;
the extraordinarily observant, and absorbing account of the fishing of
a huge shark; an acute commentary on caste/class exploitation and the
degradation of the Indian upper classes; the depiction of the Suez canal;
all comprise the travelogue as it moves with the author along the voyage.
With the ship reaching the Mediterranean, the tone becomes statedly
serious, even though the account had long since entered graver domain.
Vivekananda writes to the editor of Udbodhan ?Well Swami, you have
had enough of countries, and rivers, and mountains, and seas now
listen to a little of ancient history. The civilisational sketch of certain
lands is subsequently, and seamlessly, merged with contemporary
concerns as inland travel begins within America and Europe. He
presciently observes future dangers in the contemporary politicocultural passions sweeping Europe and with the almost universally
evident militarisation of western nations. This is succeeded with an
ethnographical sketch, and the travelogue concludes with a composed
and thoughtful analysis of Greek art in its historical context.
This travelogue, along with its acute visual quality and marked
humour, is also significant for the catholicity of its attitude and its
cosmopolitanism in depicting themes and peoples for an originally
vernacular reader who was located in a still comparatively secluded
land and with a possible susceptibility to future xenophobic tendencies
in the face of racial exploitation. This is one of its enduring achievements
even as it demonstrates the extraordinary sensitivity, foresight, and
humanity of its author.
(Professor of English, Gangeya Mukherji is the author of
"An Alternative Idea of India Tagore & Vivekananda)
, 1420
39
40
An Alternative Idea
of India: Tagore &
Vivekananda
Gangeya Mukherji
Routledge
251 Pages
Rs. 695/-
Uma Dasgupta
Gangeya Mukherji's An Alternative Idea of India: Tagore and
Vivekananda published by Routledge-India in 2011 explores the minds
of two great Indians in the ways that they idealised their country's spirit
and religion and thus set goals for their country's future. A work such
as this is an important academic and cultural exercise because neither
Tagore nor Vivekananda, who have been studied in this work, fitted
into the Indian mainstream of nationalist thought in their time nor are
they normally taken into account by today's global post-colonialist
ideologues. Tagore's and Vivekananda's voices thus deserve
comprehensive scrutiny. This study does so with wisdom and sensitivity.
The author has examined the thought processes of the two great men
from their particular social and political concerns for an inclusive
humanity. Tagore and Vivekananda rejected the forces of divisive
nationalism.
This monograph is also important for analysing and presenting
Tagore's and Vivekananda's ideas side by side despite the common
perception that their thought worlds remained apart or that their spiritual
and moral paths did not cross. In fact one of the frequent questions
asked by those who look up for inspiration to both the luminaries is
, 1420
41
whether there were ever any personal or philosophical exchanges
between them. There is little or no recorded information available on
this question though it would be ignorance to assume that there was no
convergence in their thought worlds. Author Gangeya Mukherji has
discussed this aspect of their relationship in the concluding chapter of
the book. Whatever it was for Tagore and Vivekananda personally, there
was a remarkable likeness in their goals for their country, and in their
ideas of how to address issues over caste, language, religion and custom.
Both argued that India's problem over nationalism was its historic
problem of disunity over caste, language, religion, custom.
Tagore and Vivekananda invoked God at the very foundations for
human welfare. In a poem from Gitanjali (Song-Offerings) Tagore wrote
"He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the
path-maker is breaking stones. He is with them in sun and in shower,
and his garment is covered with dust. Put off thy holy mantle and even
like him come down on the dusty soil!"
Vivekananda wrote "Every being is the temple of the Most High, if
you can see that, good, if not, spirituality has yet to come to you".
(Cited in Gangeya Mukherji, p.155)
Did they mean anything very different?
(National Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced
Study, Uma Dasgupta is engaged since long in research
on Tagore and Santiniketan with several publications on
these subjects)
, 1420
42
Hands off
For a religion to be effective, enthusiasm is necessary. At the
same time we must try to avoid the danger of multiplying creeds. We
avoid that by being a non-sectarian sect, having all the advantages of a
sect and the broadness of a universal religion.
God, though everywhere, can be known to us in and through human
character. No character was ever so perfect as Ramakrishna, and that
should be the center round which we ought to rally; at the same time
allowing everybody to regard him in his own light, either as God,
saviour, teacher, model, or a great man, just as he pleases.
We preach neither social equality nor inequality, but that every
being has the same rights, and insist upon freedom of thought and action
in every way.
We reject none, neither theist, nor pantheist, monist, polytheist,
agnostic, nor atheist; the only condition of being a disciple is modeling
a character at once the broadest and the most intense.
Nor do we insist upon particular codes of morality as to conduct,
or character, or eating and drinking, except so far as it injures others.
Whatever retards the onward progress or helps the downward fall
is vice; whatever helps in coming up and becoming harmonized becomes
virtue.
We leave everybody free to know, select and follow whatever suits
and helps him. Thus, for example, eating meat may help one, eating
fruit another.
We believe that every being is divine, is God. Every soul is a sun
covered over with clouds of ignorance, the difference between soul
and soul is due to the difference in density of these layers of clouds.
We believe that this is the conscious or unconscious basis of all
religions, and this is the explanation of the whole history of human
progress either in the material, intellectual or spiritual plane - the same
spirit is manifesting through different planes.
We believe that this is the very essence of the Vedas.
We believe that it is the duty of every soul to treat, think of, and
behave to other souls as such, i.e., as Gods, and not hate or despise, or
vilify or try to injure them by any manner or means. This is the duty not
only of the Sannyasin but of all men and women.
, 1420
43
Hands off! Keep yourself to your own bounds and everything
would come alright.
1. Education is the manifestation of perfection already in man.
2. Religion is the manifestation of Divinity already in man.
Therefore the only duty of the teacher in both cases is to remove
all obstructions from the way. Hands off! As I always say, and everything
will be right. That is, our duty is to clear the way. The Lord does the
rest.
Hope nothing from me, but I am convinced, as I wrote to you, that
India is to be saved ny Indians themselves. So you, young men of the
motherland, can dozens of you become almost fanatics over this new
idea! Take thought, get materials, write a sketch of the life of
Ramakrishna, studiously avoiding all miracles. The life should be
written as an illustration of the doctrines he preached. Only his - do not
bring me or any living persons into that. The main aim should be to
give to the world what he taught, and the life as illustrating that. I,
unworthy though I am, had one commission - to bring out the casket of
jewels that was placed in my charge, and make it over to you. Why to
you? Because the hypocrites, the jealous, the slavish, and the cowardly,
those who believe in matter only, can never do anything. Jealousy is
the bane of our national character, natural to slaves. Even the Lord
with all His power can do nothing on account of the jealousyThink
of me as one who has done all is duty and is now dead and gone. Think
that the whole work is upon your shouldersThink that you, young
men of our motherland were destined to do this. Put yourself to the
task. Lord bless you. Leave me, throw me quite out of sight. Preach the
new ideal, the new doctrine, the new life. Preach against nobody, against
no custom. Preach neither for nor against any caste or any other social
evil; preach to let "Hands off", and everything will come right.
From letter to Singaravelu Mudaliar ('Kidi') from Chicago, March 3 1894.
Kidi means 'bird' in Tamil. Often, Kidi would live
on fruits and vegetables alone hence Swamiji's nickname for him.
Kidi taught science in Christian College, Madras
, 1420
44
R. V. Smith
Delhi
Jesus' Nose
When Swami Gokulananda was the head of the Ramakrishna
Mission in Delhi, one had the good fortune of meeting him
in Paharganj. "How many of you Christians know about
Ramakrishna Paramhansa's attraction to Christ?" he asked.
And without waiting for an answer, related an incident also highlighted by Swami Vivekananda when he visited the Baptist
Church in Chandni Chowk in February 1891 - around which this article
on Ramakrishna, St. Thomas and Jesus' Nose is woven.
Are the bones of St. Thomas still in India or were they shipped
away to Syria some years after his death? The hint of a mystery persists
due to diverse accounts. Judas Thomas was chosen by Lot to preach in
India. But he did not wish to go saying that through weakness of the
flesh he could not travel.
Jesus appeared to the Apostle by night and said, "Fear not, Thomas.
Go to India and preach the word there." Just then a merchant from
India arrived in Jerusalem. His name was Abban and he had been sent
by King Gundaphorus with orders to hire a carpenter and bring him
back with him. The following morning the Apostle prayed and said, "I
go whither thou wilt Lord". The rest of the story is well known - about
how St. Thomas accompanied Abban, preached in South India and
eventually suffered martyrdom. Bishop Dudi (David) of Basra came to
India in AD 295 and found a big community of Indian Christians.
According to some accounts cited by Fr. M.K. Kuriakose, who
compiled 'The History of Christianity in India: Source Materials
republished for the Senate of Serampore College by ISPC', the bones
of St. Thomas are said to have been carried away by a merchant to
, 1420
Jesus' Nose
ARTIST : PRABIR KUMAR DAS
, 1420
45
46
Jesus' Nose
Edessa in Syria. But Marco Polo, who visited Malabar in AD 1292,

says that the body of the saint was still in the tomb at San Thome in
Madras and held in great reverence. In 1515 Duarte Barbose visited
the church of St. Thomas and he too confirmed that the body was still
there. The account of it being carried away to Edessa is thus open to
doubt.
Christianity influenced many people including Ramakrishna
Paramhansa. And it is in connection with him that we come to the
second part of the story - Jesus' nose.
Ramakrishna (1836-1886) had a vision of Christ according to an
account given by Swami Jagadananda, after "the saint-reformer of
Bengal" had visited the garden house of Jadunath Mallick, "south of
the Kali temple at Dakshineswar", where he had gazed at a picture of
the Christ-Child, seated on his mother's lap, and was filled with a great
love for Jesus and the Apostle who had brought his word to India.
Ramakrishna returned to Dakshineswar temple and on the third
day while walking under the Panchavati he saw a "marvelous godman"
whom he hailed as Christ. The apparition embraced him and vanished
as he uttered the words "son of the Father".
Long after, Ramakrishna asked his disciples what description of
Christ was given in the Bible. They replied that his appearance had not
been given but that they thought being a Jew he must have been 'fair' in
complexion with long eye-lashes and an aquiline nose.
At this Ramakrishna replied: "but I saw that the tip of his nose was
little flat. I don't know why I saw him like that". The disciples did not
understand their master's contention then but after his death they came
to know "that there were three different descriptions of Jesus's physical
features, and according to one of them the tip of his nose was a little
flat".
"See", said Swami Gokulananda, "what an amazing revelation".
He gave a short laugh and one was ushered out of his presence.
An expert on the city of Delhi, R.V Smith is a respected senior columnist
and author of "The Delhi That No-one Knows". In February 2011 the Hindu
published his article on Swami Vivekananda's visit to Delhi in February 1891,
where he says - "Vivekananda stayed for some time with his friend Dr. H.C.
Sen However during most of his three-week visit he stayed in Roshanara
Garden at the house of Shyamaldas Seth (now a school)"
, 1420
47
'Save me from my friends'

. . . One thing I find in the books of my
speeches and sayings published in
Calcutta. Some of them are printed in
such a way as to savour of political
views; whereas I am no politician or
political agitator. I care only for the Spirit
- when that is right everything will be
righted by itself So you must warn the
Calcutta people that no political
significance be ever attached falsely to
any of my writings or sayings. What
nonsense! . . . I heard that Rev. Kali
Charan Banerji in a lecture to Christian
missionaries said that I was a political
delegate. If it was said publicly, then
publicly ask the Babu for me to write to
any of the Calcutta papers and prove it,
or else take back his foolish assertion.
This is their trick! I have said a few harsh
words in honest criticism of Christian
governments in general, but that does not
mean that I care for, or have any
connection with politics or that sort of
thing. Those who think it very grand to
print extracts from those lectures and
want to prove that I am a political
preacher, to them I say, "Save me from
my friends." . .
... mind you, I stand at

nobody's dictation. I
know my mission of life,
and no chauvinism about
me; I belong as much to
India as to the world, no
humbug about that...
What country has any
special claim on me? Am
I any nation's slave?... I
am a singular man my
son, not even you can
understand me yet... I do
not believe in any
politics. God and truth are
the only politics in the
world, everything else is
trash.
From letter to Alasinga Perumal from the USA,

September 27, 1894
From letter to Alasinga

Perumal from the USA,
September 9, 1895
, 1420
48
Mandar Mitra
Calcutta
Discovering the Musician

in Swami Vivekananda
The average Bengali (and here I am making the possibly
presumptuous assumption that my awareness or ignorance
about Swami Vivekananda are representative of the average
Bengalis) knows that Swamiji loved music, and was an
accomplished musician himself. Those who have attended
vespers at any centre of the Ramakrishna Mission will have heard
khandana bhava bandhana, a hymn composed by Swamiji. What is
perhaps not as well-known is that he published a book titled Sangeet
Kalpataru when he was just 24. This article tries to outline the picture
of Swamiji as a musician and musicologist that emerges from the
Sangeet Kalpataru and from various writings about him.
The Sangeet Kalpataru, edited by Shree Narendranath Datta B.A.
and Shree Baishnabcharan Basak, was published in 1887. The book
is nearly 500 pages long, and contains three sections. The first 90 pages
of the book are devoted to an essay titled Sangeet o Baadya. A
collection of about 650 songs comprises the bulk of the book.1 An
appendix contains biographical sketches of some of the poets whose
songs have been included in this volume. The book was apparently
well received, and two more editions of the book were published within
nine months of the first.
In contrast to a prefatory note that is signed Baishnabcharan Basak,
the opening essay, Sangeet o Baadya, does not explicitly name its
The collection includes songs by poets such as Jayadev, Tansen, Vidyapati, Chandidas,
Ramprasad Sen, Nidhubabu (Ramnidhi Gupta), Dasarathi Roy, Girish Ghosh, and
several members of the Tagore family including Rabindranath Tagore (both as himself
and as Bhanusingha).
1
, 1420
Discovering the Musician in Swami Vivekananda
author(s), but Amitrasudan Bhattacharya (2010) and others have

persuasively argued that the piece must have been written by Swamiji.
The essay starts by describing vibration as the physical basis of all
sounds, and discusses the difference between musical and non-musical
sounds. It then goes on to talk about swaras (notes), the notion of an
octave, melody and rhythm, ragas and talas, various genres of classical
music dhrupad, khayal, tappa, and the tuning of instruments.
At the risk of sounding trite, it is not surprising that Sangeet o
Baadya written as it is by a versatile personality like Swami
Vivekananda contains passages of very diverse flavours. The initial
section on acoustics might easily be passed off as an extract from an
admirably lucid introductory text on the physics of sound. Later, when
Swamiji talks about the origins of Indian music, he is almost lyrical,
as the following quote from the original will testify.
, , - q
| , ^
e e 5 ,
... Q, ,
, e - ,
,
Yet, in analytical passages, he is calmly rational and completely
rigorous. There is no attempt to cover up a lack of precision through
handwaving. Consider his discussion of the etymology of the names
of swaras. The names of swaras are thought to have been derived from
their origins in the sounds made by animals. For example, Sa or sharaj
is supposed to correspond to the humming of bees, Re or rishabh to
the bellowing of a bull, Ga or gandhar to the cry of a peacock, and
so forth. In concluding this discussion, Swamiji observes, not without
humour [approximate translation mine]:
Perhaps these equivalences are the output of a poets imagination.
I am not sure whether an octave would be emitted if one were to
line up a few bees, a bull, a peacock, a donkey and so on, and
make them call. Perhaps it is simply our failure to feel what the
ancients had perceived through their poetical imagination and
concentrated listening.
As an aside, one cannot help but notice the contrast between this
passage written more than a hundred years ago and the pseudo-
, 1420
49
50
mysticism peddled by some present-day musicians. A website named

after one of our highly decorated musicians comes to mind. It tells of
how the said musician brought the rains down on a hot, sultry summer
night in Delhi through his rendition of Malhar, and how, when he was
performing Raga Todi, a deer2 came bounding into the auditorium and
headed straight towards the dais.
Finally, when Swamiji makes a case for the use of Bengali in
classical music, he presents his arguments in the impassioned and
forceful style that one has come to identify with him. Why should
khayals not be sung in Bengali? he concludes. Are the dhrupads that
have been composed in Bengali by the Brahmo Samaj inferior to
dhrupads composed in Hindi in any way? His position was vindicated
many years later by vocalists such as Jnanendra Prasad Goswami, a
gandabandh shagird of Ustad Faiyaz Khan, whose renditions of
Bengali khayals and Nazrulgeeti must be counted among the finest
recordings of Hindusthani classical music.
The remark quoted above is indicative of the esteem in which
Swami Vivekananda held the music of the Brahmo Samaj. While in
school, he had Dipendranath Tagore, son of Dwijendranath Tagore, as
his classmate. It is likely that this led to his visits to the Jorasanko
Thakurbari and to the Brahmo Samaj. He was fond of Brahmasangeet
in general, and Rabindrasangeet in particular. He would sing songs
composed by Tagore for Sri Ramakrishna, often shortly after they were
composed. Bhattacharya (2010) cites an example:
was sung for the first time during the Maghotsav festival in 1885.
Within a month, Swamiji had sung this for Sri Ramakrishna.
The Sangeet Kalpataru contains 12 songs written by Tagore. These
include f ; (based on a bhajan by Guru Nanak),
q , n,
among others.
* * *
Even given what Swami Vivekananda achieved in his short life of
39 years, one might reasonably wonder how a 24 year old managed to
complete a work such as the Sangeet Kalpataru. While some part of
Most pictorial depictions of Todi (in Kangra miniature paintings, for example) feature
a deer.
2
, 1420
ARTIST : V.S. RAHI
this achievement may be attributed to the immense energy and drive

that Swamiji possesed, it would not have been possible without proper
musical training.
Swamijis parents were both immensely fond of music. His father,
Vishwanath Datta, noticed his sons musical talent at an early age, and
arranged for him to receive formal lessons from one Beni Ustad
(referred to as Beni Gupta in certain accounts). Not much is known
about Beni Ustad beyond the fact that his was a well-known name in
contemporaneous musical circles, and that he was the disciple of
Ahmed Khan. Indeed, the precise identity of Ahmed Khan also remains
, 1420
51
52
unclear since, around that time, there were two ustads by that name.
In any case, Swamiji was trained by Beni Ustad not only in vocal
music, but also in the art of playing various instruments. According to
Bhupendranath Datta, Swamijis youngest brother, he also learnt to
play the pakhawaj and the tabla from Kashi Ghoshal, who used to play
these instruments at the Adi Brahmo Samaj. It is likely that he was
influenced by other renowned musicians whom he came in contact
with, particularly through his cousin Amritalal (also known as Habu)
Datta.3 Surprisingly, he himself composed a total of only six songs: ek
rup arup naam baran in Badhans Sarang, nahi surya nahi jyoti in
Bageshree, khandana bhava bandhana among them.
Swamijis formal training in music probably stopped when he was
in college. Around this time, a number of events occurred that changed
the course of his life. He came in contact with Sri Ramakrishna, and
his inclination towards a life of renunciation grew stronger. At the same
time, his involvement with the Brahmo Samaj started weakening. His
fathers sudden death put him at the head of a family that had a number
of dependents, but no real savings to fall back upon. Under the
circumstances, continuing his formal musical education was out of the
question. Nevertheless, Swamijis love of music, that had manifested
itself when he was a child, was to remain a lifelong passion.
* * *
The focus in the preceding sections has been on Swamiji as a
musician. In conclusion, one might recount a well-known incident in
which he was profoundly affected as a listener.
Just before the Swamis departure for the West, the Maharaja of
Khetri, who had already become his initiated disciple, accompanied
the Swami as far as Jaipur. On this occasion the Maharaja was being
entertained one evening with music by a nautch-girl. The Swami was
in his own tent when the music commenced. The Maharaja sent a
message to the Swami asking him to come and join the party. The
Swami sent word in return that as a Sannyasin he could not comply
with such a request. The singer was deeply grieved when she heard
this, and sang in reply, as it were, a song of the great Vaishnava saint,
Surdas. Through the still evening air, to the accompaniment of music,
3
Habu Datta was, among other things, one of Ustad Alauddin Khan's early gurus.
, 1420
the girls melodious voice ascended to the ears of the Swami:

O Lord, look not upon my evil qualities!
Thy name O Lord, is Same-sightedness
One piece of iron is in the image in the temple,

And another is the knife in the hand of the butcher;
But when they touch the philosophers stone,
Both alike turn to gold.
One drop of water is in the sacred Jumna,

And another is foul in the ditch by the roadside;
But when they fall into the Ganga
Both alike become holy.4
The Swami was completely overwhelmed. Speaking of this
incident later, the Swami said, That incident removed the scales from
my eyes. Seeing that all are indeed the manifestations of the One, I
could no longer condemn anybody.
From A Short Life of Swami Vivekananda by Swami Tejasananda.
I am grateful to Shri Pranab Goswami, Librarian, Advaita Ashram, Kolkata

for suggesting and providing some of the references listed below.
References
1. e e (Sangeet Saadhanaay
Vivekananda O Sangeet Kalpataru), Dilip Kumar Mukhopadhyaya.
Jijnasa. 1963.
2. La e (Vivekanander Saadhanaay
Mantrabhaabnaa O Sangeet), Swami Prajnanananda. Sri
Ramakrishna Vedanta Math. 1968.
3. e (Nabadarshane Sangeet O Baadya), Swami
Vivekananda. Compiled by Amitrasudan Bhattacharya. Deep
Prakashan. 2010.
(Mandar Mitra works at the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta. He
is interested in Hindusthani Classical Music.)
4
Original: prabhu mero avaguna chita na dharo
, 1420
53
54
ARTIST : SHANU LAHIRI
/
/
+,

+ ,

+ , -

Oh, what an enchanting vision is this!

What a beauteous face that I see!
The Lord of my life has graced my home
With so much love, overwhelming me
Tell me, Beloved, the Lord of my heart
What kind of gift should I bring for Thee?
Take my heart, take my life
Take my all - it is all for Thee.
(Two of the songs by Tagore that Vivekananda used to sing)
, 1420
55
ARTIST : ARIJIT SENGUPTA
q, ,

M ^ F

, ,
q ,

L
Seated upon Thy lofty throne, O Lord of the universe

Thou dost listen to the song of this great world
played to the tune created by Thee
I too have brought my puny self
And my poor little voice to Thy door
Desiring merely to gaze upon Thee
and to sing Thee a song
To place myself in one little corner
Of this great assembly
Where play the sun and the moon
- and quietly and softly
sing just for Thee.
(Translations : Maitrayee Sen)
, 1420
56

-
- ,
L
, ,
S ,
X , ,
,
London, 1895
A thousand, thousand shades

Of death, begrimed and black.
Scattering plagues and sorrows,
Dancing mad with joy,
Come, Mother, come!
For Terror is Thy name.
Death is in Thy breath.
And every shaking step
Destroys a world for e'er.
Thou "Time" the All-Destroyer!
Come, O Mother, come!
Who dares misery love,
Dance in destruction's dance,
And hug the form of death To him the Mother comes.
Thousand Island Park, 1895
From 'Kali the Mother'

by Swami Vivekananda
, 1420
57
On Philanthrophy
I see very well that my policy is wrong, and yours is correct, regarding
helping others; that is, if you help with money too much at a time,
people instead of feeling grateful remark on the contrary that they have
got a simpleton to bank upon. I always lost sight of the demoralizing
influence of charity on the receiver.
From letter to Swami Brahmananda (earlier Rakhal Chandra Ghosh)
from Srinagar, July 17 1898. Translated from Bengali by Advaita
Ashram. Both Swami Vivekananda and Swami Brahmananda were born
in January 1863. Swami Brahmananda was nominated the President of
Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission by Swami Vivekananda
and he remained President till his death in 1922.
Logo of Ramakrishna Mission
On Institutions
I refer repeatedly to election, accounts, and discussion so that
everybody may be prepared to shoulder the work. If one man dies,
another - why another only, ten if necessary - should be ready to take it
up. Secondly, if a man's interest in a thing is not roused, he will not
work whole-heartedly; all should be made to understand that everyone
has a share in the work and property, and a voice in the management.
This should be done while there is yet time. Give a responsible position
to everyone alternately, but keep a watchful eye so that you can control
while necessary; thus only can men be trained for the work. Set up
such a machine as will go on automatically, no matter who dies or
lives. We Indians suffer from a great defect, viz. we cannot make a
permanent organisation - and the reason is that we never like to share
power with others and never think of what will come after we are gone
From letter to Swami Brahmananda from Srinagar, August 1 1898
- translated from Bengali by Advaita Ashram
, 1420
58
Alasinga Perumal:
An Illustrious Disciple
of Swami
Vivekananda
Swami Sunirmalananda
Sri Ramakrishna Math,
Chennai, 2012
Pages 342
Rs. 75.00
The forgotten Chela

Nandan Dasgupta
We have to be grateful for this delightful addition to the
Ramakrishna-Vivekananda literature recognizing as it does the
significant contributions of this man of Chennai, a key pivot in the
exertions of Swami Vivekananda particularly while the latter was away
from the country the first time and during the crucial period after his
return.
A proficient faculty teaching modern science, Alasinga was
promoted to headmaster in 1892 at the age of 28, a position he would
hold almost till the end of his short life. Early next year Alasinga met
Vivekananda (rather Sachchidanand, as he was then calling himself)
when the latter arrived at Madras via Madurai and Rameswaram after
his well-known sojourn at Kanyakumari to stay with friend and civil
servant Manmatha Nath 'Vidyaratna' Bhattacharya, and when, as the
book says, Alasinga's search for a spiritual master came to fruition the chela found his guru, Arjun found his Krishna, Hanuman found his
Ram. As in the case of the legendary pairs, it is difficult to say who had
found who. Born in the same year, the intensity of the emotional
outpourings in Vivekananda's letters to Alasinga (appended in the book)
from the USA, particularly at anxious moments, is difficult to find in
those to his other correspondents. We also find Vivekananda at his
scintillating best in them - exhorting, scolding and jesting, just as he
, 1420
The forgotten Chela
does in his letters to the Hale sisters or to his guru-bhais.

A good part of the book is an excellent overview of the events
before and leading up to the preparations for Vivekananda's departure
for the USA, drawing and collating from various sources and interfacing
the same with Alasinga's role. Being one of those to convince the Swami
to participate in the Parliament of Religions and having raised a princely
400 rupees with tiny door-to-door contributions, Alasinga was naturally
devastated when asked by a hesitant Vivekananda to distribute the
money among the poor. He, however, once again started gathering funds
when Vivekananda firmed up his resolve upon receiving his master's
mandate in an oft-described dream and two other incidents that I would
leave for the reader to discover from the book. It was with this purse of
179 Pounds that Vivekananda set out on his historic journey.
The description of Alasinga's frenetic but successful efforts to get
across money to a financially jeopardized Vivekananda in the USA
(this was before the first Chicago address) is fascinating, rather
reminiscent of Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar's going well out of his way
for his famous and distressed young friend at Versailles. To my
knowledge, Alasinga was the only friend or disciple to whom
Vivekananda wrote for help. Of insufficient means, Alasinga borrowed
heavily, adding to it the paltry salary he had just received; his wife
gave away her jewelry. Judging the remittance to be insufficient, he
ran from pillar to post to find friends in India (including the Maharaja
of Mysore) and in the USA who would help Vivekananda.
Vivekananda's point man in Madras, he was perhaps the very first
in India to get a joyous letter from his master after the Chicago success.
But earlier too, Vivekananda had identified him as a principal delegate
for setting up the organization that would survive and perpetuate him.
Here is a gem from the master of motivation:
I have been dragged through a whole life full of crosses and
tortures, I have seen the nearest and dearest die, almost of
starvation; I have been ridiculed, distrusted, and have suffered
for my sympathy for the very men who scoff and scorn. Well, my
boy, this is the school of misery, which is also the school for great
souls and prophets for the cultivation of sympathy, of patience,
and, above all, of an indomitable iron will which quakes not even
, 1420
59
60
The forgotten Chela
if the universe be pulverised at our feet. I pity them. It is not their

fault. They are children, yea, veritable children, though they be
great and high in society. Their eyes see nothing beyond their
little horizon of a few yards - the routine-work, eating, drinking,
earning, and begetting, following each other in mathematical
precision. They know nothing beyond - happy little souls! Their
sleep is never disturbed, their nice little brown studies of lives
never rudely shocked by the wail of woe, of misery, of degradation,
and poverty, that has filled the Indian atmosphere - the result of
centuries of oppression. They little dream of the ages of tyranny,
mental, moral, and physical, that has reduced the image of God to
a mere beast of burden; the emblem of the Divine Mother, to a
slave to bear children; and life itself, a curse. But there are others
who see, feel, and shed tears of blood in their hearts, who think
that there is a remedy for it, and who are ready to apply this remedy
at any cost, even to the giving up of life. And "of such is the
kingdom of Heaven"....
Trust not to the so-called rich, they are more dead than alive. The
hope lies in you - in the meek, the lowly, but the faithful. Have
faith in the Lord; no policy, it is nothing. Feel for the miserable
and look up for help - it shall come. I have travelled twelve years
with this load in my heart and this idea in my head. I have gone
from door to door of the so-called rich and great. With a bleeding
heart I have crossed half the world to this strange land, seeking
for help. The Lord is great. I know He will help me. I may perish
of cold or hunger in this land, but I bequeath to you, young men,
this sympathy, this struggle for the poor, the ignorant, the
oppressed.
Glory unto the Lord, we will succeed. Hundreds will fall in the
struggle, hundreds will be ready to take it up. I may die here
unsuccessful, another will take up the task. You know the disease,
you know the remedy, only have faith. Do not look up to the socalled rich and great; do not care for the heartless intellectual
writers, and their cold-blooded newspaper articles. Faith, sympathy
- fiery faith and fiery sympathy! Life is nothing, death is nothing,
hunger nothing, cold nothing. Glory unto the Lord - march on, the
Lord is our General. Do not look back to see who falls - forward
- onward! Thus and thus we shall go on, brethren. One falls, and
another takes up the work.
August 20, 1893
, 1420
The forgotten Chela
The magazine Brahmavadin, (the predecessor of Vedanta Kesari)

said by the author to have been read by Prof. Max Mueller regularly,
was started and edited by Alasinga in 1895 till his death by cancer in
1909. The author tells us that his articles eschewed carrying his name
in keeping with the principles set down by his illustrious teacher.
Predictably, Alasinga died an impoverished man.
Some more stories, such as Vivekananda once again meeting and
speaking with Govinda Chetti during one of his many triumphal 1897
processions in south India (in Kumbarakonam, to be precise), could
have been included. Chetti was the psychic soothsayer who had, in
1893, 'seen' Vivekananda's mother's state of health and his foreign trip
(page 97 of the book) when Alasinga took the Swami to consult him. In
1897, however, Chetti was the seeker, Vivekananda the teacher.
However, that hardly detracts from the necessity and importance of
this long overdue book on arguably the most significant of the 'Madras
disciples'.
Beggars taking upon themselves the air of kings! Fools thinking
they are all wise! Puny slaves thinking that they are masters! That
is their condition. I do not know what to do. Lord save me. I have
all hope in Madras. Push on with your work; do not be governed
by the Calcutta people. Keep them in good humour in the hope
that some one of them may turn good. But push on with your
work independently.
- From an 1894 letter to Alasinga regarding a
Bengali book on Ramakrishna Paramhansa
A thriller per se for Vivekananda devotees, and in spite of the

reluctance of official Vivekananda books to be less subjective, the book,
being both lucid and informative with its easy, flowing narrative style
ought to keep the lay reader engrossed as well. Hopefully, the Mission
will now bring out a similarly detailed book on the Maharaja of Khetri
to whom an anxious Vivekananda, afflicted by heart disease had written
in December 1898 You made it possible for me to get rid of a terrible
anxiety and face the world and do some work. It may be that you afe
destined by the Lord to be the instrument again of helping yet grander
work, by taking this load off my mind once more.
, 1420
61
62
Friend Philosopher Guide

Dear Babies,
I had duckings in the sea like a fish. I am enjoying every bit of it.
What nonsense was the song Harriet taught me "dans la plaine" the
deuce take it. I told it to a French scholar and he laughed and laughed
till the fellow was (sic) well-nigh burst at my wonderful translation.
That is the way you would have taught me French! You are a pack of
fools and heathens, I tell you. Now are you gasping for breath like a
huge fish stranded? I am glad that you are sizzling. Oh! how nice and
cool it is here, and it is increased a hundred-fold when I think about the
gasping, sizzling, boiling, frying four old maids, and how cool and
nice I am here. Whoooooo!
May you be all happy, dear fin de sicle young ladies, is the constant
prayer of
VIVEKANANDA
From letter to the Hale sisters, July 26 1894
Dear Sisters,
This is a beautiful and nice place and the bathing is splendid.
Cora Stockham has made a bathing dress for me, and I am having as
good a time in the water as a duck, this is delicious even for the denizens
of mud Ville
Stick to God! Who cares what comes to the body or to anything
else! Through the terrors of evil, say - my God, my love! Through the
pangs of death, say - my God, my love! Through all the evils under the
sun, say - my God, my love! Thou art here, I see Thee. Thou art with
me, I feel Thee. I am Thine, take me. I am not of the world's but Thine,
leave not then me. Do not go for glass beads leaving the mine of
diamonds! This life is a great chance. What, seekest thou the pleasures
of the world? - He is the fountain of all bliss. Seek for the highest, aim
at that highest, and you shall reach the highest.
Yours with all blessings,
VIVEKANANDA
From letter to the Hale sisters, July 31 1894
, 1420
63
The story of how the Hale family had rescued Swami Vivekananda
just before the Chicago Parliament was to start is well known. He
remained close friends with them for the rest of his life.
Harriet McKindley, Mary Hale, Isabelle McKindly, Harriet Hale
My Dear Mary,
Your letter bearing the sad news of Mr. Hale's passing away reached
me yesterday. I am sorry, because in spite of monastic training, the
heart lives on; and then Mr. Hale was one of the best souls I met in
life I have lost many, suffered much, and the most curious cause of
suffering when somebody goes off is the feeling that I was not good
enough to that person. When my father died, it was a pang for months,
and I had been so disobedient. You have been very dutiful; if you feel
anything like that, it is only a form of sorrow.
Just now I am afraid life begins for you, Mary, in earnest. We may
read books, hear lectures, and talk miles, but experience is the one
teacher, the one eye-opener You have had shelter all your life. I was
in the glare, burning and panting all the time. Now for a moment you
have caught a glimpse of the other side. My life is made up of continuous
blows like that, and hundred times worse, because of poverty, treachery,
and my own foolishness! Well, well, what shall I say to you, Mary?
You know all the talks; only I say this and it is true - if it were possible
to exchange grief, and had I a cheerful mind, I would exchange mine
for your grief ever and always. Mother knows best.
Your ever faithful brother,
VIVEKANANDA
From letter to Mary Hale, February 20, 1900
, 1420
64
Myth Buster
I have heard many stories about the American home: of liberty
running into licence, of unwomanly women smashing under their feet
all the peace and happiness of home-life in their mad liberty-dance,
and much nonsense of that type. And now after a year's experience of
American homes, of American women, how utterly false and erroneous
that sort of judgment appears! American women! A hundred lives would
not be sufficient to pay my deep debt of gratitude to you! I have not
words enough to express my gratitude to you. The Oriental hyperbole
alone expresses the depth of Oriental gratitude - "If the Indian Ocean
were an inkstand, the highest mountain of the Himalaya the pen, the
earth the scroll and time itself the writer" still it will not express my
gratitude to you!
Last year I came to this country in summer, a wandering preacher
of a far distant country, without name, fame, wealth, or learning to
recommend me - friendless, helpless, almost in a state of destitution
and American women befriended me, gave me shelter and food, took
me to their homes and treated me as their own son, their own brother.
They stood my friends even when their own priests were trying to
persuade them to give up the "dangerous heathen" - even when day
after day their best friends had told them not to stand by this "unknown
foreigner, may be of dangerous character". But they are better judges
of character and soul - for it is the pure mirror that catches the reflection.
And how many beautiful homes I have seen, how many mothers
whose purity of character, whose unselfish love for their children are
beyond expression, how many daughters and pure maidens, "pure as
the icicle on Diana's temple", and withal with much culture, education,
and spirituality in the highest sense! Is America then full of only
wingless angels in the shape of women? There is good and bad
everywhere, true - but a nation is not to be judged by its weaklings
called the wicked, as they are only the weeds which lag behind, but by
the good, the noble, and the pure who indicate the national life-current
to be flowing clear and vigorous. Do you judge of an apple tree and the
taste of its fruits by the unripe, undeveloped, worm-eaten ones that
strew the ground, large even though their number be sometimes? If
, 1420
65
there is one ripe developed fruit, that one would indicate the powers,
the possibility and the purpose of the apple tree and not hundreds that
could not grow.
And then the modern American women - I admire their broad and
liberal minds. I have seen many liberal and broad-minded men too in
this country, some even in the narrowest churches, but here is the
difference - there is danger with the men to become broad at the cost of
religion, at the cost of spirituality - women broaden out in sympathy to
everything that is good everywhere, without losing a bit of their own
religion. They intuitively know that it is a question of positivity and
not negativity, a question of addition and not subtraction. They are
every day becoming aware of the fact that it is the affirmative and
positive side of everything that shall be stored up, and that this very act
of accumulating the affirmative and positive, and therefore soul-building
forces of nature, is what destroys the negative and destructive elements
in the world
From letter to Maharaja of Khetri written from the USA in 1894
Green Acre, Maine, 1894
, q I know, I give them

something solid. They know that they receive something solid."
, 1420
66
L

,
/

S

/
,
g
^ ^
n ,

26,
g

,
S

S La 2
M

M

,
, 1420
67
Kashmir, 1897
i
L ,

,
L L
RX sp
Q M La
U
,
L
, 1420
68

~
- [742-814 ]

'Totus orbis intres dividitur partes, Europam, Africam et
Indiam'- M G
` ` s
1899 s M
&
g
2 w g [ `], `
Z
M ^ ^(
S L1
^ M ,
L S -

`
|Q g :
G ,
, X G ^
`, P ,
, 1420
, = t
^ R
M
M
2
S X
^ L
La La f S 26i S

w R
h
^
Z G
, , i

U w Se
La R

S e
( wL
,

f S
eL, Z
2| -
( SS y , - M - =
, , f
[ f ]
Q M
q g

, 1420
69
70
M X Z
y G 5 q ,
L ,
L
S
, c N S
h h x
M : s

q --
^ S 2
p a a - L
5
& , La M , ,
, a , p (L
:
S
Q y S w []
, LaLa S
f26i
( 8 wL i
e
3
s V =
=
( S,
^e ( S R M
X =
= s
, s h h (
- Rt
= Z, ,
, 1420
Z , La 26i , |
, , S, [ e
s ]
1772 , ,
L
M
- L X M
V L
X M
f26i + 5O
, ,
f , , f f
e i
S e
5 G i R
( R
L R
, Z MLa La+
1800 1825 =
^
q - , La
Z
L
X ^ La
S
L
, L Z p
, G e a X ,
p Z ^
w ,
S L
, 1420
71
72
p X L
a a L
a
Z ^
S M `
Z S
s
S
R
MLa
X c
RM S
1833 I
L f
f M, ,
p f M 1843
7 f g p
SG
f ^ `
q Z p L
f N S g
e 1863
G f i &
G = R
R
X s
:, |L ,
|n , : X <
, R i S
1298 [ 1891] 13 | S
[ ]
1859 f p
, 1420
f p
M q 2
c
|n 1866 ZM p
p 26i , ,
a p
,
X 1872
S M q
+L , , ,
S p R i
G ,
p X
p f
p
4

Q
- ?

, f
,
U ,
i ...f --M f
, L | ,
L , e,
= M , &
| M
--L M f M
+
SS t
p
, 1420
73
74
^ ij ij +
L = [1836-86]
L
L Q
-
, , X
p LaM ,
L Z pN , O
3 ,
t
e
, L ,
f ,
p M
: S f k
` q
p e f
f
M M c
M
, e 1881 1886
e M f
, i +
+
5
e f
1863 1902 ~
t

i M& i
, 1420
t
M

i+, Z
+
&
La L +... y
i
,
PHOTO : DEBANGANA CHAKRAVORTY
c L x ,
, +, +
Z N , [
M ]
^ [ i] , 26
M Z,
Z M,
: M a g
, +
g , XL
a ... ? , N
+... Z , y ,
Z 263 5

U M M ,
- -
g 26i c , M=
M , ,
c
, ,
Q
, c ,
, 1420
75
76
( S Z
Z Z,
, Z
, d
,
M c M
,
... ,
M,
M, x
, M M

L
, , i
X
c + ,

& qX

~ , e +
,
-
e - i
, , ,
- S -
y
e , S
y
,
,
,
F , 26
, 1420
,
, q
, , ^ e
Z M, Z ...
& , M s
c
, = S
, : 26i
, , c
i M G &
? &
& ...
, & X S
X & ,
+
e
S
, , ,
, , , S
2 ..., Z ,
d
6
g
a
a
M RM R-
G , L
, S
, g, , ,
|n , M
... M
... M - M
M M + M =
, 1420
77
78
.. g M
M
M La S : O
p
, , X e ,
R R L Z XL q ,
N
XL L XL ,

L Z i
N M L
M ~ , , ij ij
M MF ,
- M,
S | N ,
, + 26
N M + |
M &Q
M M
i G
M L S
( Z, Z Z | i
, M M
M M M ,
M
[ i e M]
, 1420
79

+
+

[]

+
[] L

L
=
, |n
qX , ,
g , :?
, =
, M
[] , ,
,
e M, ,
, ? ?
, 2 ,
,
F
, 1420
80
Radical Reformer
I am in receipt of the resolutions that were passed at the recent
Town Hall meeting in Calcutta* and the kind words my fellow-citizens
sent over to me.
Accept, sir, my most heartfelt gratitude for your appreciation of
my insignificant services.
I am thoroughly convinced that no individual or nation can live by
holding itself apart from the community of others, and whenever such
an attempt has been made under false ideas of greatness, policy, or
holiness - the result has always been disastrous to the secluding one.
To my mind, the one great cause of the downfall and the
degeneration of India was the building of a wall of custom - whose
foundation was hatred of others - round the nation, and the real aim of
which in ancient times was to prevent the Hindus from coming in contact
with the surrounding Buddhistic nations.
Whatever cloak ancient or modern sophistry may try to throw over
it, the inevitable result - the vindication of the moral law, that none can
hate others without degenerating himself - is that the race that was
foremost amongst the ancient races is now a byword, and a scorn among
nations. We are object-lessons of the violation of that law which our
ancestors were the first to discover and disseminate.
Give and take is the law; and if India wants to raise herself once
more, it is absolutely necessary that she brings out her treasures and
throws them broadcast among the nations of the earth, and in return be
ready to receive what others have to give her. Expansion is life,
contraction is death. Love is life, and hatred is death. We commenced
to die the day we began to hate other races; and nothing can prevent
our death unless we come back to expansion, which is life.
We must mix, therefore, with all the races of the earth. And every
Hindu that goes out to travel in foreign parts renders more benefit to
his country than hundreds of men who are bundles of superstitions and
selfishness, and whose one aim in life seems to be like that of the dog
in the manger. The wonderful structures of national life which the
Western nations have raised, are supported by the strong pillars of
character, and until we can produce members of such, it is useless to
, 1420
81
fret and fume against this or that power.
Do any deserve liberty who are not ready to give it to others? Let
us calmly and in a manly fashion go to work, instead of dissipating our
energy in unnecessary frettings and fumings. I, for one, thoroughly
believe that no power in the universe can withhold from anyone anything
he really deserves. The past was great no doubt, but I sincerely believe
that the future will be more glorious still.
May Shankara keep us steady in purity, patience, and perseverance!
Letter of November 18, 1894 to Raja Pearey Mohan Mukherjee
acknowledging the resolutions passed at a public meeting at the Town Hall,
Calcutta on September 5, 1894
Opening pages of the published proceedings at the Town Hall, Calcutta

*To receive a pdf copy (2.6 MB) of the Proceedings at Calcutta, please mail a
request to us at ohetuk.sabha@gmail.com
, 1420
82

~
-
&
+

MM
f&
& +
M M +
+ |& M
G + (
&+ M MZ
i M ij
G
| M
, , M R+ U
&i M
& X ij R
N

f
, 1420
- &
26 S
+ L
M
X G
G
U M
e M
X e
S
+ , M

S L
ij s [1835]
[1863] y
, L ijS
,

, ( ^ e

&- S
M ,
MQ i
&
? N
1886
f i 1881
f
iL , 5
& U , ,
g
, 1420
83
84
- &
S
U L
: U
M

2
La & p S
e 26

,

M La
= y
: 5 R
M ,
,
L

La N =
p
S R
[
] L
Z +
, ,
U La Z
i X
, + i

, 1420
- &
& Q U

L 5
^ x U
(
i x ( U
i U
a
M L a
-
a p M M ,
a m ^ q
S
a ( 3
a e
La 5 +
U La
X L L
,
p ( +
+ S
( M p S
p Unitarian Church-
p M
Z N
US G p p
g +
y p
+ f e

, 1420
85
86
- &
|X U p-M
M
M f
+ +

La +
N , p
i |X
p , p
L p -
[ f ]
i 26

f

f
ij s ,
p
M U X

X
L

+
f
M U (
M : Aristotle, Descarte,
Spinoza, Herbert Spencer Comte
ARTIST : DEBASISH BHATTACHARYA
Huxley Tyndal
, 1420
- &
a U e f
La a ,
f S a M
, |X
f S L M
p U
La , X
, f
& ij
FA p
y f
c p
L e M X
f g
M
M Q
, L y
M , X
f c M U+
X

263 f L

: M
+ M f wL
M
f : d
+ +
f : 3 , N

,
, 1420
87
88
- &
,
:
M g
f
5 U
f X

2
f g
g

a
f M

N U
: g
U ( U ~ qX
M qX :
q M
f M
+
, P -
f :
f
M
2

5 X f
, c + f
U
, 1420
- &
p M f
ij
f L,
+
S - M
M M M
M e M
M c f
X
+ X , qX X
f , LR +
LR L f Z
Infinity- Herbert Spencer, Huxley Tyndal
&

e L
f Z
p

q
d d
... .. p d d
, , p
: :
f - ...
, q

-
e g ij
c
, 1420
89
90
- &
f p M, + c
e f L
M
Infinity L 26
G M ^
,
, +, ,
, , c
26 , + M

f L G+
,

, e
e , e
M = M qX qX X
f
y
: ,
&
&, R
S+ & ^ , &

MQ
f + L
, & M
| L
Z, Z
Z +
M Z Z,
t : N
, 1420
- &
- Z -
g : , L
+ L ...

q f

+ ~ U
p N

,
M M , M e

N q

26 ...
q q
La p , f
&*
,
[] s Z
[] [ ] c
[] f i +
L
f a L
y ^ w

V
, 1420
91
92
- &
i

e

Z L
L
Z
e q L N
+ t t
qX : qX M Z , : + Z
: L
R
, ^
L , i R
Z , &M
L M
( & R t
generation gap La, a
,
U ,
= R
, 26

M

M ,
|, X L
5 + t
L p
, 1420
ARTIST : ANAMIKA ADHIKAR (Student)
- &
f
+ S
a N
, L

, 1420
93
94
X
- 128
M v
265 ? - 129

o - 1210
M |
P - 1211
| : :X
26LL - 1212
, X , L
?, M
, Z M
, [ |, ,
],
X M ,
+ | R
: |, : |
| + L
: f
Sacred stone structures at

Chandrashila, Uttarakhand
PHOTO : SATYAKI SAHA
, 1420
95
Militant Monk
To Miss Mary Hale
54 W. 33RD STREET, N.Y.,
1st February, 1895
DEAR SISTER,
I just received your beautiful note.... I am very glad of your
criticisms and am not sorry at all. The other day at Miss Thursby's I
had an excited argument with a Presbyterian gentleman, who, as usual,
got very hot, angry, and abusive. However, I was afterwards severely
reprimanded by Mrs. Bull for this, as such things hinder my work. So,
it seems, is your opinion.
I am glad you write about it just now, because I have been giving a
good deal of thought to it. In the first place, I am not at all sorry for
these things - perhaps that may disgust you - it may. I know full well
how good it is for one's worldly prospects to be sweet. I do everything
to be sweet, but when it comes to a horrible compromise with the truth
within, then I stop. I do not believe in humility. I believe in
Samadarshitva - same state of mind with regard to all. The duty of the
ordinary man is to obey the commands of his "God", society; but the
children of light never do so. This is an eternal law. One accommodates
himself to surroundings and social opinion and gets all good things
from society, the giver of all good to such. The other stands alone and
draws society up towards him. The accommodating man finds a path
of roses; the non-accommodating, one of thorns. But the worshippers
of "Vox populi" go to annihilation in a moment; the children of truth
live for ever.
I will compare truth to a corrosive substance of infinite power. It
burns its way in wherever it falls - in soft substance at once, hard granite
slowly, but it must. What is writ is writ. I am so, so sorry, Sister, that I
cannot make myself sweet and accommodating to every black falsehood.
But I cannot. I have suffered for it all my life. But I cannot. I have
essayed and essayed. But I cannot. At last I have given it up. The Lord
is great. He will not allow me to become a hypocrite. Now let what is
in come out. I have not found a way that will please all, and I cannot
but be what I am, true to my own self. "Youth and beauty vanish, life
, 1420
96
and wealth vanish, name and fame vanish, even the mountains crumble
into dust. Friendship and love vanish. Truth alone abides." God of Truth,
be Thou alone my guide! I am too old to change now into milk and
honey. Allow me to remain as I am. "Without fear - without shopkeeping,
caring neither for friend nor foe, do thou hold on to Truth, Sannysin,
and from this moment give up this world and the next and all that are to
come - their enjoyments and their vanities. Truth, be thou alone my
guide." I have no desire for wealth or name or fame or enjoyments,
Sister - they are dust unto me. I wanted to help my brethren. I have not
the tact to earn money, bless the Lord. What reason is there for me to
conform to the vagaries of the world around me and not obey the voice
of Truth within? The mind is still weak, Sister, it sometimes
mechanically clutches at earthly help. But I am not afraid. Fear is the
greatest sin my religion teaches.
The last fight with the Presbyterian priest and the long fight
afterwards with Mrs. Bull showed me in a clear light what Manu says
to the Sannyasin, "Live alone, walk alone." All friendship, all love, is
only limitation. There never was a friendship, especially of women,
which was not exacting. O great sages! You were right. One cannot
serve the God of Truth who leans upon somebody. Be still, my soul! Be
alone! and the Lord is with you. Life is nothing! Death is a delusion!
All this is not, God alone is! Fear not, my soul! Be alone. Sister, the
way is long, the time is short, evening is approaching. I have to go
home soon. I have no time to give my manners a finish. I cannot find
time to deliver my message. You are good, you are so kind, I will do
anything for you; and do not be angry, I see you all are mere children.
Dream no more! Oh, dream no more, my soul! In one word, I have
a message to give, I have no time to be sweet to the world, and every
attempt at sweetness makes me a hypocrite. I will die a thousand deaths
rather than lead a jelly-fish existence and yield to every requirement of
this foolish world, no matter whether it be my own country or a foreign
country. You are mistaken, utterly mistaken, if you think I have a work,
as Mrs. Bull thinks; I have no work under or beyond the sun. I have a
message, and I will give it after my own fashion. I will neither Hinduise
my message, nor Christianise it, nor make it any "ise" in the world. I
will only my-ise it and that is all. Liberty, Mukti, is all my religion, and
everything that tries to curb it, I will avoid by fight or flight. Pooh! I try
, 1420
97
to pacify the priests!! Sister, do not take this amiss. But you are babies
and babies must submit to be taught. You have not yet drunk of that
fountain which makes "reason unreason, mortal immortal, this world a
zero, and of man a God". Come out if you can of this network of
foolishness they call this world. Then I will call you indeed brave and
free. If you cannot, cheer those that dare dash this false God, society, to
the ground and trample on its unmitigated hypocrisy; if you cannot
cheer them, pray, be silent, but do not try to drag them down again into
the mire with such false nonsense as compromise and becoming nice
and sweet.
I hate this world, this dream, this horrible nightmare with its
churches and chicaneries, its books and blackguardisms, its fair faces
and false hearts, its howling righteousness on the surface and utter
hollowness beneath, and, above all, its sanctified shopkeeping. What!
measure any soul according to what the bond-slaves of the world say?
- Pooh! Sister, you do not know the Sannyasin. "He stands on the heads
of the Vedas!" say the Vedas, because he is free from churches and
sects and religions and prophets and books and all of that ilk! Missionary
or no missionary, let them howl and attack me with all they can, I take
them as Bhartrihari says, "Go thou thy ways, Sannyasin! Some will
say, 'Who is this mad man?' Others, 'Who is this Chandla?' Others will
know thee to be a sage. Be glad at the prattle of the worldlings." But
when they attack, know that, "The elephant passing through the marketplace is always beset by curs, but he cares not. He goes straight on his
own way. So it is always, when a great soul appears there will be numbers
to bark after him."
Lord bless you all ever and ever - and may He lead you quickly
out of this big humbug, the world! May you never be enchanted by this
old witch, the world! May Shankara help you! May Um open the door
of truth for you and take away all your delusions!
Yours with love and blessings,
VIVEKANANDA
The matter did not rest here.
The dialogue continued, but in verse.
, 1420
98
Mischievous Monk
Mary Hale sent a contrite reply. Vivekananda perhaps felt sorry for
her and responded in verse, starting off with Now Sister Mary,
You need not be sorry
For the hard raps I gave you,
You know full well,
Though you like me tell,
With my whole heart I love you.
A part of this poem has been reproduced on page 1.
In keeping with his spirit, Mary replied The monk he would a poet be
And wooed the muse right earnestly;
In thought and word he could well beat her,
What bothered him though was the metre.
His feet were all too short too long,
The form not suited to his song;
He tried the sonnet, lyric, epic,
And worked so hard, he waxed dyspeptic.
While the poetic mania lasted
He e'en from vegetables fasted,
Which Lon1 had with tender care
Prepared for Swami's dainty fare.
One day he sat and mused alone Sudden a light around him shone,
The "still small voice" his thoughts inspire
And his words glow like coals of fire.
1
Chicago
1893
Leon Landsberg, a disciple of Vivekananda, later Swami Kripananda
, 1420
99
And coals of fire they proved to be
Heaped on the head of contrite me My scolding letter I deplore
And beg forgiveness o'er and o'er.
The lines you sent to your sisters four2
Be sure they'll cherish evermore
For you have made them clearly see
The one main truth that "all is He".
Vivekananda replied In days of yore,
On Ganga's shore preaching,
A hoary priest was teaching
How Gods they come
As Sit Rm,
And gentle Sita pining, weeping.
They homeward wend their way The sermons end,
The hearers musing, thinking.
When from the crowd
A voice aloud
This question asked beseeching, seeking "Sir, tell me, pray,
Who were but they
These Sita Ram you were teaching, speaking!"
So Mary Hale,
Allow me tell,
You mar my doctrines wronging, baulking.
I never taught
Such queer thought
Mary, her sister and two cousins
, 1420
Chicago
1893
100
That all was God - unmeaning talking!
But this I say,
Remember pray,
That God is true, all else is nothing,
This world's a dream
Though true it seem,
And only truth is He the living!
The real me is none but He,
And never, never matter changing!
With undying love and gratitude to you all. . . .
VIVEKANANDA
Mary raised some objections The difference I clearly see
'Twixt tweedledum and tweedledee That is a proposition sane,
But truly 'tis beyond my vein
To make your Eastern logic plain.
If "God is truth, all else is naught,"
This "world a dream", delusion up wrought,
What can exist which God is not?
All those who "many" see have much to fear,
He only lives to whom the "One" is clear.
So again I say
In my poor way,
I cannot see but that all's He,
If I'm in Him and He in me.
Green Acre
1894
, 1420
101
Vivekananda's response had a tone of finality Of temper quick, a girl unique,
A freak of nature she,
A lady fair, no question there,
Rare soul is Miss Mary.
Her feelings deep she cannot keep,
But creep they out at last,
A spirit free, I can foresee,
Must be of fiery cast.
Tho' many a lay her muse can bray,
And play piano too,
Her heart so cool, chills as a rule
The fool who comes to woo.
Though, Sister Mary, I hear they say
The sway your beauty gains,
Be cautious now and do not bow,
However sweet, to chains.
For 'twill be soon, another tune
The moon-struck mate will hear
If his will but clash, your words will hash
And smash his life I fear.
These lines to thee, Sister Mary,
Free will I offer, take
"Tit for tat" - a monkey chat,
For monk alone can make.
Jaipur
1891
, 1420
102
On 11th of September 1893, Swami Vivekananda addressed the
Parliament of Religions at Chicago. This is what he wrote of it
and of the days thereafter in a letter to India on 2nd November:
On the morning of the opening of the Parliament, we all

assembled in a building called the Art Palace, where one huge and
other smaller temporary halls were erected for the sittings of the
Parliament. Men from all nations were there. From India were
Mazoomdar of the Brhmo Samj, and Nagarkar of Bombay, Mr.
Gandhi representing the Jains, and Mr. Chakravarti representing
Theosophy with Mrs. Annie Besant. Of these, Mazoomdar and I
were, of course, old friends, and Chakravarti knew me by name.
There was a grand procession, and we were all marshalled on to the
platform. Imagine a hall below and a huge gallery above, packed
with six or seven thousand men and women representing the best
culture of the country, and on the platform learned men of all the
nations of the earth. And I, who never spoke in public in my life, to
address this august assemblage!! It was opened in great form with
music and ceremony and speeches; then the delegates were
introduced one by one, and they stepped up and spoke. Of course
my heart was fluttering, and my tongue nearly dried up; I was so
nervous and could not venture to speak in the morning. Mazoomdar
made a nice speech, Chakravarti a nicer one, and they were much
applauded. They were all prepared and came with ready-made
speeches. I was a fool and had none, but bowed down to Devi
Sarasvati and stepped up, and Dr. Barrows introduced me. I made a
short speech. I addressed the assembly as "Sisters and Brothers of
America", a deafening applause of two minutes followed, and then
I proceeded; and when it was finished, I sat down, almost exhausted
with emotion. The next day all the papers announced that my speech
was the hit of the day, and I became known to the whole of America.
Truly has it been said by the great commentator Shridhara -
U - Who maketh the dumb a fluent speaker."His name be
praised! From that day I became a celebrity, and the day I read my
paper on Hinduism, the hall was packed as it had never been before.
I quote to you from one of the papers: "Ladies, ladies, ladies packing
, 1420
103
every place - filling every corner, they patiently waited and waited
while the papers that separated them from Vivekananda were read",
etc. You would be astonished if I sent over to you the newspaper
cuttings, but you already know that I am a hater of celebrity. Suffice
it to say, that whenever I went on the platform, a deafening applause
would be raised for me. Nearly all the papers paid high tributes to
me, and even the most bigoted had to admit that "This man with his
handsome face and magnetic presence and wonderful oratory is the
most prominent figure in the Parliament", etc., etc. Sufficient for
you to know that never before did an Oriental make such an
impression on American society...
This letter was written to Alasinga Perumal, one of the "Madras boys"
who strongly supported Swami Vivekananda's desire to go to the
Chicago Parliament of Religions. Alasinga met Vivekananda in 1892.
He and a few friends had raised quite a bit of money through petty
contributions when Vivekananda was struck by doubt (particularly
because of the Raja of Ramnad refusing help, although earlier having
promised to and in fact, later providing it), and asked for the money
to be distributed among the poor. He was waiting for a divine
command, which came in the form of his master Sri Ramakrishna
appearing in a dream, where the Guru walked into the ocean
beckoning to the disciple to follow him. See page 58 for more on
this in a book on Alasinga published by Sri Ramakrishna Math,
Chennai, the first branch of the Belur Math.
This issue of
HINDOL
is supported by
RUMA MAZUMDAR
&
DILIP MAHAPATRA
, 1420
104
Kolkata, 1899
, ,
, ,
/ & -
- , , ,
, S S U U , ...
U , - S
p M , i
, /...
- ^ : ,
X , - i , 26,
' 26, & & q ,
, M , - ...
We have to give back to the nation its lost individuality and raise
the masses. The Hindu, the Mahomedan, the Christian, all have
trampled them under foot. Again the force to raise them must come
from inside, i.e., from the orthodox Hindus. In every country the
evil exists not with but against religion. Religion, therefore, is not
to blame, but men.
, Z &
1015
/// Fools and dotards and Selfishness personified -
/ , , and devote
the rest of my life to the realization of this one aim of my life.
[ S] 19 , 1894-
, 1420
105
A
Vive Kananda!
[ /]
, ' e -

= (
,
(
, 2-, M
2 26

F 600
, ,
1893 s
= - 26
400 '
- e
i q
Q S &
= g g , &

- , -[]...
, 1420
106
Vive Kananda! [ /]
-
- 263
M q q
-, M

2
- [ /]
&Q
-
1896-97 , ^
^ Z
1900 ' c -
2001-
- y 26
120 -, -
- -
(Parliament) ,
& /
` KI KI
, ... ...
-
M &
, L ,
-
M Z y KI G,
U KI
, & ^
- L
q p
, 1420
Vive Kananda! [ /]
^ , M

[, 13 I]
^ -
| 7 7 (shame, shame')
! -
^ ML
~
M =

g
'

La
- G
, y
~
` [ 10 ]
g q , ...
L ...
e e |
7.. 7 y M
M

, M M S
[-] -
- s Q
L
X , ?
, AL -
, 1420
107
108
Vive Kananda! [ /]

q-- - -

-
k S :
~ S 5
&Q
13 [15 1891]
, Rerum Novarum [ ]
On the Condition of the Working Classes ,

[ 9] La
, k 1871
^n La
c - MM
13 ,
, ' ,
g
UL
G-X , La
, -x, -L
La q - ,
KIL, , X, , a, U,
M -
3
, -
World's Columbian Exposition
, 1420
Vive Kananda! [ /]
- & e
S G
- Exposition, Expo S
1851 L
S ,
1848 , M L
-?
Expo- , 1853
I , '
S X [18611865] XS
-
X
,
26 -
La -
/
ij A [5 I 1894]
e ,
... X
q
,
, ,

4
- 1876
-' M y
L
c 1889 - '

, 1420
109
110
Vive Kananda! [ /]
k

V
2
- ,
' 26 e ,
ZiZ KI 25 [1890]

5
[ ]
' MQ
e M e t
KI -
, ,
- ~ 1894

-
' KI gQ
M--
KI m X ML -
6
, , M
1889- '
, z
-

-, - y
? - ,
- (Wizard of Oz)-
--
, 1420
Vive Kananda! [ /]
q, &
(stucco)
-

M i i
& - (Palace of Fine Arts)
y - SL
224 -SL
- 46
- , e
(World's Congress Auxilliary) S 1283
4822 M 5978 M |

46 -SL -
- L
c
La ,
, ,
- 1492 ^S
- ,
, ^
- ,
s
s
- 246 1000 e
- q , '

, 1420
111
112
Vive Kananda! [ /]
'belly dance' `
(model)
7
&
2 ,

'
- Z M,
S e,
e ,
Q e

Q q wQ
, e
e Q
e ' -
, ...e
X e
-
' e
2000 ;
-
& 1894 L, e
ML
e e
' - -
q ~ KI a O

8
A- - X S q
, 1420
Vive Kananda! [ /]
1870 80,
296
S 66
, ,
|
47.5 |M q ,
1886 1
35000 |
8 KI , MM
,
- MM ' Z
- y ij
S ' Z 1
9
Z Q S
' KI
vG -
- f S 22 , &
I
' Z 5
5 , qS
-
1893 (panic of
1893) panic s [20
1893] ... `
, g
,
~ ,
L 1894 L
,

, 1420
113
114
Vive Kananda! [ /]
10

- -
, ... G ...
G ,

Dear Mother
[Hale) [13 , 1894], -
Father Pope- '
- -
| Father Pope
- vL,
|
`-
[1 2 1894], 13
,
26
10
c
e
'
( A
-
13 e
M

-
26 M Z
, 1420
Vive Kananda! [ /]
' KI
e -KI
, &
- Q
k -
-

~
|
iQ
:,
,
q M
[ ]
q s
q
, y , R

|-
11
M
1492 U L
q
U
, G -
v S (pilgrim
fathers) G
KI 1 Q
G KI
c G
, 1420
115
116
Vive Kananda! [ /]
i KI
M
q KI
q
ZiZ
KI G
G
;L G [ ]
,
L L
(Toleration Act)
' - UM
, L
M - - i V
- La
3 G
, , M
(toleration) q
q q 10, 10
M-KI 10 KI
|n
'orange monk' [470
s] A KI (toleration and tolling)
M 2 toleration s
L - q
- q | -
, e U U
| -
a | ,
M q c XL ,
, 1420
Vive Kananda! [ /]
, | XL c
| y ,
, X
/ & ,
M, | q U
, &
&
[25 I 1894],
&
...
e e I ,
g ij sectarianism, bigotry,
fanaticism - U M c
S g / ,
Gray! 'Elegy...' : The curfew
tolls the knell... Paths of glory...

KI toll
KI knell e |
Z KI
g &
s
toll knell
= (
|X
q , (
S M
? M, pen is mightier than sword
~ , '...persecutions with the sword or with the pen...'
M g, - [
, 1420
117
118
Vive Kananda! [ /]
, 1420
Vive Kananda! [ /]
]
M KI
q, i (monk) , ` M q
i ^ 26i
[ - G
-- ] ,
, M/ -
/ S |
f
...
, I
11, 911
26 S
e Vive Kananda! Vive s
'Dear (Mr.) Kananda'

12
108 2001 s
f e 3000

S , ,

[ A g]
, 1420
119
120

~
, ,
y + c
ij S 39 6
+ 8
26, * - S

g
Py
y N

M
R
f y M
/ f

- S

S
, 1420
L :
N S g
,
S,
Q -S Q
X
g
S
, / S

e U t 5 M R

i L

1893
- -
M
k X Z p, ,

..
X G
26 M 8
G
X-, -, KI-
p f

L

8 G
KI La

, 1420
121
122
-
2
- q 1893
11 I, 27 I,

M q
| e
- w a
q
|
, q
, S
'v [ ] s y ,
M S M
- , i i ,
c ^ , ,
S ,
x, iM U
- ,
,
&
(
- KI

= 15 I, qS -
i i U
M G
g ,
S M
,
q
, 1420

+
ij e
, e
,
S, ,
^ G :
- - ^
- ^
- A
^ -
- e ^
G -
,
(

- ^
, ^
,
,
^
V
3
19 I, e
g M
y
d , y
V
A qS ,

L M

i G ,
, 1420
123
124
U -
G
M c U-
ij U- 5
S ,
x ij, O S
M M , ^
263
+ M x&
R M ,
: R S X
: & M
M 5, c
G S i i R
= G
X M , :
M
y , +L S -
L M+ - S ,
,

:M M *
-
- R
, R R L y,
R i ^
26i , R
,
R - ,
ij ,
S
, 1420
M
,ij
, e
-
ij ij ,

26 , L :
ij (
ij
MS 5 ij N
S , c &
L M
:
M ij
: Z

ij ,
& ij : U
ij

ij

:
, Z ij (
ij , R M
c f , f
L S R qX,
M Q X
M

, 1420
125
126
La 2 , S,

, :-g ,
S , ,
, S ,

, , ,
- S &
, X M
, 8 ,
ij- w +
- , qX, , M

- R p+,
= X g R Q
t g M
S-+ S
qX S +

- R ,
Q 5
L
x
N: +
:+ w M MQ
w : , 26i
^ N g Q : MM
XL : Z
: d
: :
S R , R wR S Z
, 1420
N : s + ,
, - M ,
:? Z S
U-
i :
-
S S
KI
+ & - M
M , -
L- + |
+
a ~ - - = i
, c 2 UQ
Q + L ,

Z ij 26 S

-

, ,
, M e -
f ,

,

, 1420
127
128
^ - :
i i c

L
: X
M ,
N c Q
S c S
S M -
- S
c
,
V ,
X ,

, , ,
+
+ i
Q , y
4
M L
M
20 I,
ij M
R ,
c
M R-X
, c : ia ,
, i, L
- : M
, 1420
-
3 22 I, qS
M a
L M
M
23 I, M&
? M
M
& M
-
-
23 I,
"Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean" S
,
a-
, M e 5,
a e Q
y
Ri & P
XM y
24 I,
M
'Chicago Herald' S ,
i + , i +
ZX
w R XL

q
: 22 23 I
25 I, =

26 I , e - = X
, 1420
129
130
e g e 3
, X X
e ~
, X
c +
L c e
U
g, X
g q U c U
q KI ,

- G :G :G i
, 2
, S X
X p
& ,
- ^ ,

a N 2 i
-
X 2 N: -X
X ij
N
F ,
X ,
i ,
,
- X
V - X ,
X X p 26
, Q
, 1420
X 3 - ,
p M & X +M M
M
27 I, 5
-
-| M
V =
: &
| ~
i |n L
&
M
-

M - +L
PHOTO : SOURABH SENGUPTA
, 1420
131
132
e
, - c ,

+L
, &&

X = i
, - , , ,
i L y
5
- ,
~ , , :

q - : M
, ~
M 3
i M
1896 L 1897
n X
1899 S , `, ,
U M 1900 1863
12 ij
S 39 6 1902 4
1963 ij
S
Q i
y y ij -
Q
,
, 1420
g

, g

X
Q
q
i

&
London, 1896

, ,

- ,
X , q
S

[ g
, S ]
, 1420
133
134
, 5 ,
- , , , , , , ,
- , /
, Spinach -
, & , e
, 2 ,
, , -
, , 5 S
, , - ,
, - - , S,
; - L - KI , -
q , L ...
, ,
, & S e g
C KI
, , //...
1894 &
+
i , /
,
- 26
, c + P, ,
, - ;;
~ e
, c 7

, 1420

,
S g,

qX ;
|n
(
-
L - G
- -:,
M i
M,
/
L
-
i

, 1420
ARTIST : ANAMIKA ADHIKARI (Student)
135
136
, - , -
-
... e
, -
- g-g e
,
e 26
, c - ,
, c : ,
KI v U ,
, KI-KI
, KI-KI , q
, KI
KI ... &
, ... c
, ,
expert - L ...
& / & ,
M ...
q e ,
c q
- , , q
, + L ,
Q
2 ...

[ , Z ]
, 1420
137

&
, `
^

c "
R y q ,
, ^, , -L
(Indian Economic Thought) q
L [Father of Indian Economics)
,
N (Drain Theory) c
[1863-1902]
L i g L
L +
,
2

L- - -
, c
S + :-
, 1420
138
La ,
La
|X -
, La La
La ? Karl Marx d
(Materialistic Interpretation of History through the Dialectical Process)
e La, Q, LLa, La La
(Primitive Communism, Slavery, Feudalism, Capitalism, Socialism)

p- i M ij
(Community property) S-
- , (artisan) | (division of labour)
- -, -, ^
X , - -,
- - - q ,
[ The First Industrial Nation Workshop of the World
] | ^ |
M 26
(October Revolution, 1917)
c Z - S + ^- ,
, c |
, f
26 |- 26 [ Stalin q ]

, La-
X M ,
p :, S
, 1420
, x M ^
, & ,

c
~ ,
i , ^, i
[] X , [] , []
KI , [] i ,
,
...
a , c
i &

, y S , , c
& /
s -
S
3
S e M
ZX - ij ,
[ Demography-
young population), -, i, M
M , , , ,
g , M

U , M ,
q ,
[ ]
ij c
G , []
26, ,

, 1420
139
140
L M, :, L M
... , , ,

L M M ,

,
, c
, , c M ,
, R &

,
& e
, &/ e [ ?] /
/ L M

q [ Zg ]
, Q
,
e Z S
p i
p U ,
[ ] , 5-6
S
i - ,
e , pi
J , ,
e /
4
L M R
e
:
, 1420
g M L
/ /
,
[
X- ]
i
q p
:
p S L
[ ] c f

, /
, - i S

,
^
L c S
e +e 26,
, ^
, , KI
, e g , p ... ,
, , , , , ...
g ,
M
q
, ,

c t vL
,
, ~, S vL ,
, 1420
141
142
, ..

ij ... , ,
&
, ,
L X |n
, Therapy of Tears

, c
26
,
,

, , :, M

-
i
,
,
M = ...
M ,
,
,
5
L , L
, Z Q
, &,
10 "
1893
i M 26
, 1420
26 30 80 M 26
x ,
S MM ... streator
, M 87 5
M
2 ,
,
,
26

1894- []
,
,
qS
, , 2

presentation, marketing skills corporate
world- enterprise entrepreneurial ability
M
,

& &
,
, La ,
e L
X , , i, ,
M Mf (Individual charity)
(Organised charity)
Old Poor Law- 1834 New Poor
Law- [ M k ]
, 1420
143
144
g f
N g
f , g
'begging expedition' f f
, e
26 Allow me to be frank in return and to tell you that possibly your
own temperament prevents you to understand the dignity of the
mission which I am glad to call my own - a mission that is not
merely concerned with the economic problem of India or her sectarian
religions, but which comprehends the culture of the human mind in
its broadest sense. And when I feel the urge to send abroad some
poetical creation of mine, which according to me carries within it
a permanent standard of beauty, I expect, not alms or favour, but
grateful homage to my art from those who have the sensitiveness
of soul to respond to it. And if I have to receive contribution in
the shape of admission fees from the audience, I claim it as very
much less than what is due to me in return for the rare benefit
conferred upon them. Therefore, I refuse to accept the term "begging
expedition" as an accurate or worthy expression coming from your
pen.
6
, ,
-----
26 1897- - i
La d
... , ,
-SL q|n ,
v G i 26
,
, 26
La mechanism c La
(mission) ,
(way of life) S
, 1420

M 26
, La
( L
La M ,
L
, M
| , M S g
c 1897-
'It is better to wear out than rust out.'
&
S
26 26
&
" 1898- ,
1898

f , , g

t

Z
M vL, J, ,
N
1901 ,
[ psychosomatic ] ,
26
, R-
26 L
X ,
c
& 5 , -
, 1420
145
146
i
7
M
, L [ ] M
L, | ,
^ ,
x
R 26 L
G : c , :

, M
, M R i
, ,
M
, pG
M
-X
, ^

U+ e e g

, 26 , r

[ ~
, ]
, 1420
147

& Z
i
, ...
&
& S
...
G
d c & 3
- , &
M...
G
... []
,
g S
M , "you must stand on your own feet and struggle"
...
e M M
+
c e ,
X , you would
have been stoned in the streets of New York...
[p]
- -
- , ,
Z, Z, ZZ, Z - +
, - M

[ , Z ]
, 1420
148
S
~

, U ,
U g
L 5 , : , ( 5 F
L
1893 -
S , This Hindu cyclone has shaken the
world. ...The effect was galvanising
, , +
S
X x
U ( q,
Harvard University- Dr. Wright- a
'only 30 years in time but ages in civilization'
,
(, : ( e , : , 'America discovered Vivekananda and made
a gift of him to India.'
M S
, 1420

( M
qX

MQ M, e y F, , (
M - i
[ ]
, , C, U ,
G, , , ,
L v q U S-S
v
, M R
|X :
,

+
, +

, M
~ , Mrs. Kate Sanborne, Mrs. Belle Hale
, Mrs. Lyon, Mrs. Sara Bull, Ms. Macleod.

, e G
Ms. Christina
Greenstidel Mrs. Charlotte Sevier.
e
Mrs. Kate Sanborne. 1893
q - , I
Z
, U I L y
, 1420
149
150
` M
C MN, ,
, Massachusetts-
Mrs. Kate Sanborne e
La
Sanborne
e M
L
M c e , S Prof. John Henry
Wright. L -
+ S M - Z
G M G
I
I g , c
- ,
S
vL |L
I

e
| | e Parliament Parliament- KI
John Henry Barrows- e

e
U S
g, q
, 1420
-

I
e G
L
q
1896 e
G L
26
|
Mrs. Sevier
S-S
L
1899 Z |

^ 2 Z |
&Q f U

S ~ c U
MQ Z i
-
-
- Christine Greenstidel - Sister Christine
- e , g U
e
X
The power that emanated from this mysterious being was so
great that one all but shrunk from it. It was overwhelming.
It threatened to sweep everything before it... What can one say
that will give even a faint idea of its majesty, its glory, its
splendour?
, 1420
151
152
f S
5 L
M 2 R
L P +
[] q 26 f F qS
f c , ij
KI
5 f e
c f
e q 5 Z ,
, p +
+ f
+ f Z: p
f |
+e 5

, , ,
f
+ e
f q

f
f , L
y , i pG
/ + c , L
c S ,
, , +
, i, , , i / -
, + U
, 1420
153
y + , q, ,
+ 26i
, , c
M // ,
/ -
S 5
q
+ c +
/ , M 26i
, /
,
, / - ,
+ L 26i
S ,
Z: / a ,
/ ZN

e
"You see, I cannot but believe that there is somewhere a great

Power That thinks of Herself as feminine, and called Kali, and
Mother And I believe in Brahman too But is it not always
like that? Is it not the multitude of cells in the body that make up
the personality, the many brain-centres, not the one, that produce
consciousness? Unity in complexity! Just so! And why should
it be different with Brahman? It is Brahman. It is the One. And
yet - and yet - it is the gods too!"
As told to Sister Nivedita - 'The Master as I saw him'
, 1420
154
&5
~
e ,
M , , ,
&26 ,

,
, ,
/ , ,
, ,
M : q
, , q
, ,
, , 26 &,
,
,
,

, 26 26
: : :
, f
, 1420
Mi :G q X
q 26 ,
,
,
: , 1

, , , ,
, , S
, ,

: : :
,
I , - , e
e , , ,
, ,
, , ,
, , , ,
, , N& ,
ZM , ,

& ,
; ,
R- , Rt L p
G ,
, , , , , q ,
, q ,
q M ,
1887 S, Le f,
1
: , c L M
, 1420
155
156

, , - &, & 24
i
, ,
, M :
, , X , ; ,
q
,
: : :
f
, M R
, , M ,
e L + S 39
y ,
moments of weakness nervousness despondency c
, ^

If I have told you one word of truth, it was his and his alone,
and if I have told you many things which were not true, which
were not correct, which were not beneficial to the human race,
they were all mine, and on me is the responsibility.
~ L

If there has been anything achieved by me, by thoughts, or
words, or deeds, if from my lips has ever fallen one word that
has helped anyone in the world, I lay no claim to it, it was
his... All that has been weak has been mine, and all that has
been life-giving, strentghening, pure, and holy, has been his
inspiration, his words, and he himself.
Achieve Q
ij, F
& [ , ]
Z-- ,
@ , n
, 1420
, , M
, L -
, , ,
,
, , Sn , ,
c , ,
,
, M command , ,
M , v ,
, ,
Q
Q
Q & vL
- 1900- [ p]
, neurasthenia |L (
,
26, , ,
Now I again hear his voice; the same old voice thrilling my
soul. Bonds are breaking - love dying, work becoming tasteless
- the glamour is off life. Only the voice of the Master calling.
"I come Lord, I come" Yes, I come. Nirvana is before
me. I feel it at times - the same infinite ocean of peace,
without a ripple, a breach.. The guide, the Guru, the leader,
the teacher has passed away; the boy, the student, the servant
is left behind.2
R g M d
26 - , 1900
" S (Christine Greenstidel) I am sending all the money I earned in America to India. Now
2
18 , 1900-
, 1420
157
158
I am free, the begging-monk as before. I have also resigned

from the Presidentship of the Monastery. Thank God, I am
free! It is no more for me to carry such a responsibility. I am
so nervous and so weak..
I have had many difficulties, and also some very great successes. But all my difficulties and suffering count for nothing,
as I have succeeded. I have attained my aim. I have found
the pearl for which I have dived into the ocean of life. I have
been rewarded. I am pleased. The experience of all my life,
up to now, has taught me, thank God, that I always find what
I am looking for with eagerness. Sometimes it is after much
suffering, but it does not matter!.
I see the cloud lifting, vanishing, the cloud of my bad Karma.
And the sun of my good Karma rises - shining, beautiful, and
powerful.

- The Master said he would come again in about two hundred
years - and I will come with him.3
k- I may have to be born again because I have fallen in love

with man.
Q g L
Q , -

-,
SL 26 , ,
26, p ,
/
G S + US P
[ ] &
qS enlarge
L M
3
- 4,34,2
, 1420

-7 M 26 1899-1900
|
c |
Z -S 26- 1900-
, , 4
M &
M Last Supper- 26 5
26 , /
, , q M
, c , c
*
: ^^ -:
M ,
, S
, ^ ,
, R ,
M , , ,
, , :
i , R ,
M ,
, Rf , -^
q , S M
, , , ,
, M, ,
, , ,

- - [ 2004 - 252]
The Indispensable Vivekananda - Amiya P. Sen
, 1420
159
160
, -q -
, (
-
, 1420
The fire-fly appears in the night, Sri Ramakrishna tells

us, thinking that it is the light of the world and banisher
of the darkness of night, full of comical vanity. Then
the stars in their plurality of distant glitter come out and
poor fire-fly embarrassedly slinks away, leaving the stars
in arrogant command of the night and full of the
presumption that they are the light of the world. Then
the moon enters the arena of darkness big and bright
and beautiful and so confident as to be able to afford
even some spots on her round radiant face, shaming a
million stars into acknowledgment of their comparative
lacklustreness and, like the mind and ego of man, the
moon proclaims that she is the light of the world and
banisher of the darkness of night and ignorance. Too
bad for the moon and mind and ego, the sun appears.
And, at first reluctant moon quickly enough disappears
altogether manonsa permitting the sun of selfknowledge undistractedly to illumine all things and
itself. The moon too like purified mind rising once again
in reincarnation but this time with the knowledge that
its light, beautiful brilliant light, more powerful than
stars and fire-flies is nevertheless light borrowed from
the sun. Self-knowledge fulfils without destroying, as
does the advaitin truth of India.
Ramchandra Gandhi
I am Thou
- Meditations on the Truth of India
Year 5, No. 1
ISSN 0976-0989
Shanu Lahiri
(1928 2013)
Among the earliest batch of female artists graduating from Calcutta's Government School
of Art and with her first solo exhibition while in college, the 1950s was the formative period
of Shanu Lahiri's stylistic development, during which two years were spent at the
Academy Julien and the Ecole de Louvre on a French Government scholarship. In the late
1970s, she joined the Faculty of Visual Arts at Rabindra Bharati University, retiring as its
Dean. Instrumental in starting a women-only artists collective in 1983 called The Group
(which held an exhibition recently at the Lalit Kala Akademi gallery of New Delhi on
completing 30 years), Shanu Lahiri's symbiotic relationship with the primary city of her
work found expression in her Love Calcutta project, involving students and slum children
in collective endeavours of painting murals on the city's street walls. Her Ragamala series
of 1978, Thakurmar Jhuli series of 1982 and collages and posters of the late 1980s on the
bride burning theme using the Kali iconography are particularly well known. Continuing to
work till the very last, her last solo exhibition was held in Calcutta in 2012.

16th Issue Hindol April 2013

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

16th Issue Hindol April 2013

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

ij

ARTIST : SITA RAY

Nor angel I, nor man, nor brute,

Not two nor many, 'tis but one,

Swami Vivekananda 150 Years Special

E-46, Greater Kailash-I,

Front Cover Profile:

Service To Man The Highest Religion

Discovering the Musician in

Translations of Tagore Songs

his issue of Hindol brings together reflections on

PHOTO : BRAHAMACHARI GANENDRANATH

Service to Man The Highest Religion

The Bhagavat Gita (XIII.13) chants: 'With hands and

Swamiji reiterated that each person is intrinsically divine and that

Service to Man - The Highest Religion

Service to Man - The Highest Religion

to engage all the monks, householder devotees of Sri Ramakrishna and

Service to Man - The Highest Religion

that an equally important aspect of worship lies in the service of God

If one comprehends that by serving a fellow human being, one is

poem, 'To a Friend' flash in our minds:

May Swami Vivekananda give us the strength, the necessary

Shri Haridas Viharidas Desai

Dear Diwanji Saheb,

Modern Hinduism and

In this essay I argue that the growth of a modern Hinduism,

Modern Hinduism and Swami Vivekananda

thinkers argued for a religious reformation preceding the social - a

Modern Hinduism and Swami Vivekananda

increasingly captured in popular bazaar paintings, songs, farces and

When closely examined, this statement can be bewildering since

Modern Hinduism and Swami Vivekananda

generation constructed its own 'truths'. The substance of this

Modern Hinduism and Swami Vivekananda

Modern Hinduism and Swami Vivekananda

PHOTO : SOURABH SENGUPTA

Modern Hinduism and Swami Vivekananda

Modern Hinduism and Swami Vivekananda

Ramakrishna) carried a certain revulsion for radical theologies and

Modern Hinduism and Swami Vivekananda

As the above passage would no doubt indicate, Vivekananda

Modern Hinduism and Swami Vivekananda

Cable Car - California, 1900

Modern Hinduism and Swami Vivekananda

Ever since I have had occasion to re-visit this particular speech

It is by no means my intention to suggest that Vivekananda was

Modern Hinduism and Swami Vivekananda

had to be vigilantly exercised by the people themselves, such reformism

Travel, particularly overseas travel, indicated an important

Vivekananda's Memoirs of European Travel

Vivekananda's Memoirs of European Travel

Vivekananda's Memoirs of European Travel

society as has been described in travel accounts by some distinguished

Vivekananda's Memoirs of European Travel

gradual change in the general air of overseas travel up to the times

Banerjea recorded however, that he and his friends thoroughly

The reception accorded in Indian society to the returnees from a

Vivekananda's Memoirs of European Travel

The leaders indeed applauded the courage of the members of my

In the 19th century itself, another great reformer, Dayananada

Vivekananda's Memoirs of European Travel

and others and have scruples in coming in contact with excellent