Saradakosh

Ohio - Chicago (23 Feb - 9 Mar. 1894)

Total Records Found: 24

Salutation to Bhagavan Ramakrishna!_x000d_ (Summer?1894_x000d_ {original in Bengali}_x000d_ Dear and Beloved {brother-disciples at Alambazar monastery},_x000d_ Your letter gives me all the news over there. I am grieved to hear of the bereavement Balaram Babu's wife has sustained. Such is the Lord's will. This is a place for action, not enjoyment, and everyone will go home when his task is done some earlier, and some later, that is all. Fakir has gone well, such is the will of the Lord!_x000d_ It is a welcome news that Shri Ramakrishna's festival has come off with great eclat; the more his name is spread, the better it is. But there is one thing to know: Great sages come with special messages for the world, and not for name; but their followers throw their teachings overboard and fight over their names--this is verily the history of the world. I do not take into any consideration whether people accept his name or not, but I am ready to lay down my life to help his teachings, his life, and his message spread all over the world. What I am most afraid of is the worship room. It is not bad in itself, but there is a tendency in some to make this all in all and set up that old-fashioned nonsense over again--this is what makes me nervous. I know why they busy themselves with those old, effete ceremonials. Their spirit craves for work, but having no outlet they waste their energy in ringing bells and all that._x000d_ I am giving you a new idea. If you can work it out, then I shall know you are men and will be of service. . . . Make an organised plan. A few cameras, some maps, globes, and some chemicals, etc., are needed. The next thing you want is a big hut. Then you must get together a number of poor, indigent folk. Having done all this, show them pictures to teach them astronomy, geography, etc., and preach Shri Ramakrishna to them. Try to have their eyes opened as to what has taken place or is taking place in different countries, what this world is like, and so forth. You have got lots of poor and ignorant folk there. Go to their cottages, from door to door, in the evening, at noon, any time--and open their eyes. Books etc., won't do--give them oral teaching. Then slowly extend your centres. Can you do all this? Or only bell-ringing? _x000d_ I have heard everything about Brother Tarak from Madras. They are highly pleased with him. Dear Brother Tarak, if you go to Madras and live there for some time, a lot of work will be done. But before you go, start this work there first. Can't the lady devotees convert some widows into disciples? And can't you put a bit of learning into their heads? And can't you then send them out to preach Shri Ramakrishna from door to door, and impart education along with it? . . . _x000d_ Come! Apply yourselves heart and soul to it. The day of gossip and ceremonials is gone, my boy, you must work now. Now, let me see how far a Bengali's religion will go. Niranjan writes that Latu (Adbhutananda) wants some warm clothing. The people here import winter clothing from Europe and India. You will get a woollen wrap in Calcutta at one-fourth of the price at which I might buy it here. . . . I don't know when I shall go to Europe, everything is uncertain with me I am getting on somehow in this country, that is all._x000d_ This is a very funny country. It is now summer; this morning it was as hot as April in Bengal, but now it is as cold as February at Allahabad! So much fluctuation within four hours! The hotels of this country beggar description. For instance, there is a hotel in New York where a room can be hired for up to Rs. 5,000 a day, excluding boarding charges. Not even in Europe is there a country like this in point of luxury. It is indeed the richest country in the world, where money is drained off like water. I seldom live in hotels, but am mostly the guest of big people here. To them I am a widely known man. The whole country knows me now; so wherever I go they receive me with open arms into their homes. Mr. Hale's home is my centre in Chicago. I call his wife mother, and his daughters call me brother. I scarcely find a family so highly pure and kind. Or why should God shower His blessings on them in such abundance, my brother? Oh, how wonderfully kind they are! If they chance to learn that a poor man is in a strait at such and such a place, there they will go, ladies and gentlemen, to give him food and clothing, and find him some job! And what do we do!_x000d_ In summer they leave their homes to go to foreign lands, or to the seaside. I, too, shall go somewhere, but have not yet fixed a place. In other points, they are just as you see Englishmen. They have got books and things of that sort, but very dear. You can have five times those things in Calcutta for the same price. In other words, these people will not let foreign goods be imported into the country. They set a heavy tax on them, and as a result, the market goes up enormously. Besides, they are not much in the way of manufacturing clothing etc. They construct tools and machinery, and grow wheat, rice, cotton, etc., which are fairly cheap._x000d_ By the bye, nowadays we have plenty of Hilsa fish here. Eat your fill, but everything digests. There are many kinds of fruits; plantain, lemon, guava, apple, almond, raisin, and grape are in abundance; besides many other fruits come from California. There are plenty of pineapples but there are no mangoes or lichis, or things of that sort._x000d_ There is a kind of spinach, which, when cooked, tastes just like our Note of Bengal, and another class, which they call asparagus, tastes exactly like the tender Dengo herb, but you can't have our Charchari made of it here. There is no Kalai or any other pulse; they do not even know of them. There is rice, and bread, and numerous varieties of fish and meat, of all descriptions. Their menu is like that of the French. There is your milk, rarely curd, but plenty of whey. Cream is an article of everyday use. In tea and coffee and everything there is that cream--not the hardened crust of boiled milk, mind you-- and there is your butter, too, and ice-water--no matter whether it is summer or winter, day or night, whether you have got a bad cold or fever--you have ice-water in abundance. These are scientific people and laugh when they are told that ice-water aggravates cold. The more you take, the better. And there is plenty of ice-cream, of all sorts of shapes. I have seen the Niagara Falls seven or eight times, the Lord be praised! Very grand no doubt, but not quite as you have heard them spoken of. One day, in winter, we had the aurora borealis._x000d_ . . . Only childish prattle! I have not much time to listen to that sort of thing in this life; it will be time enough to see if I can do that in the next. Yogen has completely rallied by this time, I hope? The vagabond spirit of Sarada (Trigunatita) is not yet at an end, I see. What is wanted is a power of organisation--do you understand me? Have any of you got that much brain in your head? If you do, let your mind work. Brother Tarak, Sharat, and Hari will be able to do it. --has got very little originality, but is a very good workman and persevering--which is an essential necessity, and Shashi (Ramakrishnananda) is executive to a degree. . . . We want some disciples--fiery young men--do you see?--intelligent and brave, who dare to go to the jaws of Death, and are ready to swim the ocean across. Do you follow me? We want hundreds like that, both men and women. Try your utmost for that end alone. Make converts right and left, and put them into our purity-drilling machine.. . . What made you communicate to the Indian Mirror that Paramahamsa Deva used to call Narendra such and such, and all sorts of nonsense?--As if he had nothing else to do but that! Only thought-reading and nonsensical mystery-mongering! . . . It is excellent that Sanyal is visiting you often. Do you write letters to Gupta? Convey to him my love, and take kind care of him. Everything will come right by degrees. I don't find much time to write heaps of letters. As for lectures and so forth, I don't prepare them beforehand. Only one I wrote out, which you have printed. The rest I deliver off-hand, whatever comes to my lips--Gurudeva backs me up. I have nothing to do with pen and paper. Once at Detroit I held forth for three hours at a stretch. Sometimes I myself wonder at my own achievement--to think that there was such stuff in this pate! They ask me here to write a book. Well, I think I must do something that way, this time. But that's the botheration; who will take the trouble of putting things in black and white and all that! . . . We must electrify society, electrify the world. Idle gossip and barren ceremonials won't do. Ceremonials are meant for householders, your work is the distribution and propagation of thought-currents. If you can do that, then it is all right. . . . _x000d_ Let character be formed and then I shall be in your midst. Do you see? We want two thousand Sannyasins, nay ten, or even twenty thousand--men and women, both. What are our matrons doing? We want converts at any risk. Go and tell them, and try yourselves, heart and soul. Not householder disciples, mind you, we want Sannyasins. Let each one of you have a hundred heads tonsured--young educated men, not fools. Then you are heroes. We must make a sensation. Give up your passive attitude, gird your loins, and stand up. Let me see you make some electric circuits between Calcutta and Madras. Start centres at places, go on always making converts. Convert everyone into the monastic order whoever seeks for it, irrespective of sex, and then I shall be in your midst. A huge spiritual tidal wave is coming--he who is low shall become noble, and he who is ignorant shall become the teacher of great scholars--through HIS grace. "{Sanskrit}--Arise! Awake! And stop not till the goal is reached." Life is ever expanding, contraction is death. The self-seeking man who is looking after his personal comforts and leading a lazy life--there is no room for him even in hell. He alone is a child of Shri Ramakrishna who is moved to pity for all creatures and exerts himself for them even at the risk of incurring personal damnation, {Sanskrit}--others are vulgar people. Whoever, at this great spiritual juncture, will stand up with a courageous heart and go on spreading from door to door, from village to village, his message, is alone my brother, and a son of his. This is the test, he who is Ramakrishna's child does not seek his personal good. "{Sanskrit}--They wish to do good to others even when at the point of death." Those that care for their personal comforts and seek a lazy life, who are ready to sacrifice all before their personal whims, are none of us; let them pack off, while yet there is time. Propagate his character, his teaching, his religion. This is the only spiritual practice, the only worship, this verily is the means, and this the goal. Arise! Arise! A tidal wave is coming! Onward! Men and women, down to the Chandala (Pariah)--all are pure in his eyes. Onward! Onward! There is no time to care for name, or fame, or Mukti, or Bhakti! We shall look to these some other time. Now in this life let us infinitely spread his lofty character, his sublime life, his infinite soul. This is the only work--there is nothing else to do. Wherever his name will reach, the veriest worm will attain divinity, nay, is actually attaining it; you have got eyes, and don't you see it? Is it a child's play? Is_x000d_ it silly prattle? Is it foolery? "{Sanskrit}--Arise! Awake!" Great Lord! He is at our back. I cannot write anymore. --Onward! I only tell you this, that whoever reads this letter will imbibe my spirit! Have faith! Onward! Great Lord! . . . I feel as if somebody is moving my hand to write in this way. Onward! Great Lord! Everyone will be swept away! Take care, he is coming! Whoever will be ready to serve him--no, not him but his children--the poor and the downtrodden, the sinful and the afflicted, down to the very worm--who will be ready to serve these, in them he will manifest himself. Through their tongue the Goddess of Learning Herself will speak, and the Divine Mother--the Embodiment of all Power--will enthrone Herself in their hearts. Those that are atheists, unbelievers, worthless, and foppish, why do they call themselves as belonging to his fold. . . . _x000d_ Yours affectionately,_x000d_ Vivekananda_x000d_ PS. . . . The term organisation means division of labour. Each does his own part, and all the parts taken together express an ideal of harmony. . . .

Salutation to Bhagavan Ramakrishna!_x000d_ (March or April?) 1894_x000d_ {original in Bengali}_x000d_ My dear Akhandananda,_x000d_ I am very glad to receive your letter. It is a great pleasure to me to learn that you have regained your health to a great extent by your stay at Khetri._x000d_ Brother Tarak (Shivananda) has done a good deal of work in Madras. Very agreeable news indeed! I heard much praise of him from the people of Madras. . . . _x000d_ Try to develop spirituality and philanthropy amongst the Thakurs in the different places of Rajputana. We must work, and this cannot be done by merely sitting idle. Make a trip now and then to Malsisar, Alsisar, and all the other "sars" that are there. And carefully learn Sanskrit and English. Gunanidhi is in the Punjab, I presume. Convey my special love to him and bring him to Khetri. Learn Sanskrit with his help, and teach him English. Let me have his address by all means. . . . _x000d_ Go from door to door amongst the poor and lower classes of the town of Khetri and teach them religion. Also, let them have oral lessons on geography and such other subjects. No good will come of sitting idle and having princely dishes, and saying "Ramakrishna, O Lord!"--unless you can do some good to the poor. Go to other villages from time to time, and teach the people the arts of life as well as religion. Work, worship, and Jnana (knowledge)--first work, and your mind will be purified; otherwise everything will be fruitless like pouring oblations on a pile of ashes instead of in the sacred fire. When Gunanidhi comes, move from door to door of the poor and the destitute in every village of Rajputana. If people object to the kind of food you take, give it up immediately. It is preferable to live on grass for the sake of doing good to others. The Gerua robe is not for enjoyment. It is the banner of heroic work. You must give your body, mind, and speech to "the welfare of the world". You have read--"{Sanskrit}--Look upon your mother as God, look upon your father as God"--but I say "{Sanskrit}--The poor, the illiterate, the ignorant, the afflicted--let these be your God." Know that service to these alone is the highest religion._x000d_ Ever yours, with blessings,_x000d_ Vivekananda

No sooner had Swamiji left Detroit than the orthodox divines began, as one writer put it, "to pound the dust all out of their pulpit cushions." The five public lectures and the many informal talks he had given, together with the favorable comments in the press, which attested to his strong influence, were more than many a clergyman could endure. Swamiji had undermined the very ground upon which the Christian missionaries had stood for so long. Not only did he teach that no one religion was superior in essence to another, but he pointed out the hypocrisy of Christianity as it was practiced both at home and abroad. Added to this, he repudiated every story of immoral "heathen" practices by which missionary societies had heretofore justified their existenceand Christian nations their right to colonize. Idolatry, Juggernaut, under the wheels of which Hindus were reputed to be in the habit of flinging themselves, infanticide, the tragic plight of women, the burning of widows indeed every tale over which Christian missionaries had become frenzied Swamiji either explained in rational terms or denied utterly.

But the fiction of a degenerate India was the very lifeblood of the more narrow missionary circles, and they had little inten¬tion of parting with it. The obvious move was to attack Swamiji with every weapon available. "Vive Kananda, the Hindoo monk, served at least one good purpose by his recent visit to Detroit," said the Detroit Journal of February 26, "for his name and ideas furnished a dozen or more local ministers with themes for their discourses yesterday." Some ministers ranted against him without restraint, others spoke more obliquely, brash oratory being no longer fashionable.

"Some of them Smite Kananda on Hip and Thigh," the Journal quaintly expressed it in headlines. The reader, however, should not be burdened with the full texts of those Sunday smitings. The main points made against Swamiji's lectures revolved around the insistence on the part of the orthodox clergymen that India was not moral but degenerate and that Christian missionaries were heroes and saints to whom the benighted Hindu should bow down in gratitude and whom the American people should support.

Every tactic was used. One Baptist clergyman, irate over Swamiji's attack on the Christian mode of praying, gravely declared that the reason "Kananda and his people do not pray at all," is that "their God, Brahma," being without attributes, has no ears.

In Ypsilanti, a city in Michigan near Detroit, not only Swamiji but his friends, the Reverend Mr. Stuart of the Unitarian Church and Rabbi Grossman, came in for a sermon. It will be remembered that in his talk on Sunday, February 18, Rabbi Grossman had highly praised Swamiji and had rebuked the Christian churches for squandering the good money and goodwill of the American people in proselytizing work far from home, "while all along our poor were at our door." "How in this good and sympathetic country of ours," the rabbi had said "such an illusion, I will not say delusion, could enthrall the robust and sound-sensed citizens, I do not understand." This, together with the Reverend Mr. Stuart's equally high praise of Swamiji and equally damning criticism of Christian methods, could not be let pass without rejoinder.

Forthwith the Rev. H. M. Morey of Ypsilanti, who had evidently been reading the Detroit papers, delivered a Sunday retort. I will spare the reader the full text of his sermon, which was given in the Detroit Tribune of February 26, for it was long and filled with the usual indictment of Hinduism and the usual praise of the missionary "heroes" who "have told us of the sufferings and sorrows of humanity, not in the self righteous spirit suggested by the Brahmin, but with tenderness in the voice and with teats in their eyes."

Mr. Morey accused Swamiji and his supporters of telling only "half truths," which "may sometimes do the work of lies and slanders." For instance, both Rabbi Grossman and Mr. Stuart had suggested that there was as much immorality in America as in India-if not more. Said Morey:

There are half truths here, but these men of thought should have discriminated. Drunkenness and licentiousness and cruelty exist in Detroit under the shadow of churches. They exist also in Calcutta. Here they are contrary to Christianity and are the remains of the native barbarism not yet extinguished by Christianity. There they exist in the temples of the gods, sanctioned by their example and precepts. In India the people have only to follow the examples of their gods to become drunken and licentious. I wish to deal fairly in this matter and not to deal in half truths.

According to the Reverend Mr. Morey, Swamiji also dealt in half truths:_x000d_ _x000d_ Vive Kananda .was asked some questions which he answered in the pulpit. He answered with a display of humor and apparent frankness that may deceive. "Do the people of India throw their children into the jaws of crocodiles?" "Do they kill themselves beneath the wheels of Juggernaut?" "Do they burn widows with their husbands?" He ridicules the ideas, and denies the fact except in exceedingly rare and exceptional cases. He has told a truth or a half truth and in such a way as to justify the claim of the rabbi that it is a "delusion" to send mis-sionaries to India.

Mr. Morey went on to say that while these "horrible rites" (upon which he enlarged at length) no longer exist, their suppression has been due solely to "the direct and indirect influence of the `delusion' as the rabbi calls christian missions." Indeed, by the time Morey was through, India had nothing whatsoever in her favor except the presence of Christian missionaries.

In the meantime, his first visit to the city was already bearing fruit. In the very teeth of the missionary convention the Evening News of March 1 published a long illustrated article that un mercifully ridiculed the tall tales of missionary propaganda particularly those in Caleb Wright's book, India and Its Inhabitants, a book which had been published in the 1850s and which formed part of the mental framework of the generation that had grown up under its spell. India and Its Inhabitants has been referred to before (Chapter Four) as one of the most potent weapons of the Christian missionaries. Its luridly illustrated tales of heathen mothers throwing their newborn infants to the crocodiles and of wild-eyed Hindus flinging themselves beneath the crushing wheels of Jagannath had been read and reread, had been believed as gospel truth, and had deposited a good deal of debris in the American mind, which only a hard jolt could dislodge.

Swamiji had delivered that jolt; whereupon the Evening News, which was known in those days as a "sensational" paper and which took delight in shocking its subscribers out of their accustomed grooves of thought, followed up with an expose of Caleb Wright and his ilk. The article need not be quoted in full; the closing paragraphs will be sufficient to show that public opinion was undergoing a radical change and also that, now and then, a modern American missionary gave testimony to the truth of Swamiji's assertions.

The editorial concluded:_x000d_ _x000d_ In a work written by Rev. A. D. Rowe, an American missionary, and published by the American Tract society, his introduction says:_x000d_ _x000d_ "There is an India of the books and there is a real India, and so different are the two that the student of the one would hardly recognize the other, if without a guide he should suddenly find himself in a Hindoo village. These books," he says, "have been written by European travelers, who confined themselves to main routes of travel, the cities and the larger towns, where they see but little undisguised Hindoo life. Many of these books seem to have been made with the aim of astonishing rather than instructing the reader, and they leave on the mind an impression that India is a country where women are caged up like parrots, where widows are burned alive, and children are hung up in baskets to be eaten by birds, or thrown into the Ganges to be eaten by crocodiles; that it is inhabited chiefly by voluptuous native princes, self torturing religious devotees, powwowing Brahmin priests, jewel bedecked dancing girls, and ferocious Bengal tigers. Of the millions of soberminded, toiling fellow human beings, with hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, sympathies and ambitions common to all mankind, little or nothing is said.

"The school children of America know more about the burning of widows and the drowning of infants in India than do the fathers of an ordinary Hindoo village. These things are as surprising to the young Hindoo as they are to the young American. I do not say that these accounts are literally untrue, but they put too much stress upon characters and topics that are of comparatively little importance to the life of the masses."

A captain of one of the Peninsular & Oriental steamers told Thomas W. Knox that an American passenger on board his ship was very much disappointed when he heard that he would not see a widow burned or a pilgrim crushed by the car of Juggernaut. He was very angry, and said all the poetry of the east was gone, and he wished he had never left home.

Appearing on the same page with the above article was a poem entitled "Christian and Heathen" by J. W. W._x000d_ _x000d_ When Chapman waved the christian banner _x000d_ In a mild and graceful manner, . . . ' _x000d_ Stirring souls of men and women_x000d_ Up against the dreadful foeman._x000d_ "In hoc signo vinces" shouted ,_x000d_ Showed that dangers all were scouted; _x000d_ That the foe was wholly routed._x000d_ But, alas! That prince of evil, _x000d_ Most properly yclept the devil,_x000d_ Sly old barbed-tailed, split-hoofed minion, _x000d_ Issued from his hot dominion_x000d_ Full of argument and knowledge, _x000d_ Gathered in Experience college, _x000d_ Came within these precincts urban, _x000d_ Wearing flowing robes and turban; _x000d_ Hoofs and tail beneath them hid he, _x000d_ Called himself Kananda did he,_x000d_ Put his Hindoo logic neatly,_x000d_ And overthrew our force completely. _x000d_ _x000d_ All was silence round about us¬_x000d_ The heathen monk, by George, did rout us_x000d_ ¬And we were feeling rather sickly_x000d_ Till other forces gathered quickly. _x000d_ They rose like locusts in the air, _x000d_ Aspiring like a heartfelt prayer;_x000d_ And here they are from hills and prairies, _x000d_ Bold-hearted College Missionaries!_x000d_ _x000d_ Hip! Hip! Hur-stay, our great rejoicing _x000d_ May have a slightly hasty voicing;_x000d_ Our solid front may still be hollow,_x000d_ As who knows, brethren, what may follow? . . . Therefore let us wait the ending,_x000d_ Our posts most quietly defending.

The lecture on the Divinity of Man by Swami Vive Kananda, the Hindu monk, drew a packed house at the Opera last Friday evening [February 23]._x000d_ He stated that the fundamental basis of all religions was belief in the soul which is the real man, and something beyond both mind and matter, and proceeded to demonstrate the proposition. The existence of things material are dependent on something else. The mind is mortal because changeable. Death is simply a change._x000d_ The soul uses the mind as an instrument and through it affects the body. The soul should be made conscious of its powers. The nature of man is pure and holy but it becomes clouded. In our religion every soul is trying to regain its own nature. The mass of our people believe in the individuality of the soul. We are forbidden to preach that ours is the only true religion. Continuing the speaker said: "I am a spirit and not matter. The religion of the West hopes to again live with their body. Ours teaches there can not be such a state. We say freedom of the soul instead of salvation." The lecture proper lasted but 30 minutes but the president of the lecture committee had announced that at the close of the lecture the speaker would answer any questions propounded him. He gave that opportunity and liberal use was made of the privilege. They came from preachers and professors, physicians and philosophers, from citizens and students, from saints and sinners, some were written but dozens arose in their seats and propounded their questions directly. The speaker responded to all--mark the word, please--in an affable manner and in several instances turned the laugh on the inquirer. They kept up the fusilade for nearly an hour; when the speaker begged to be excused from further labor there yet remained a large pile of unanswered questions. He was an artful dodger on many of the questions. From his answers we glean the following additional statements in regard to the Hindu belief and teachings: They believe in the incarnation of man. One of their teachings is to the effect that their God Krishna was born of a virgin about 5000 years ago in the North of India. The story is very similar to the Biblical history of Christ, only their God was accidently killed. They believe in evolution and the transmigration of souls: i.e. our souls once inhabited some other living thing, a bird, fish or animal, and on our death will go into some other organism. In reply to the inquiry where these souls were before they came into this world he said they were in other worlds. The soul is the permanent basis of all existence. There was no time when there was no God, therefore no time when there was no creation. Buddhists [sic] do not believe in a personal god; I am no Buddhist. Mohammed is not worshipped in the same sense as Christ. Mohammed believes in Christ but denies he is God. The earth was peopled by evolution and not special selection [creation]. God is the creator and nature the created. We do not have prayer save for the children and then only to improve the mind. Punishment for sin is comparatively immediate. Our actions are not of the soul and can therefore be impure. It is our spirit that becomes perfect and holy. There is no resting place for the soul. It has no material qualities. Man assumes the perfect state when he realizes he is a spirit. Religion is the manifestation of the soul nature. The deeper they see is what makes one holier than another. Worship is feeling the holiness of God. Our religion does not believe in missions and teaches that man should love God for love's sake and his neighbor in spite of himself. The people of the West struggle too hard; repose is a factor of civilization. We do not lay our infirmities to God. There is a tendency toward a union of religions.

Unfortunately, the first Sunday sermons preached against Swamiji are not available, but that they existed is evidenced from the following letter written by one of his anonymous defenders. This letter, which appeared in the Free Press of February 23, also gives a little information regarding the almost constant "following up" Swamiji endured:

Praise For Kananda._x000d_ _x000d_ To the Editor of The Detroit Free Press:_x000d_ Much has been said about Swami Vive Kananda's attacks on the Christian religion. I do not think any one who has heard his lectures can truthfully say he has attacked the religion itself-that is, what Jesus taught. On the contrary, he has ever spoken with love and reverence of Jesus and His work. What he has done is to denounce the outward expression of so-called Christianity, the creeds, dogmas, superstitions and bigotry which degrade our faith on the one hand, and the dishonesty, cruelty, intolerance and utter selfishness which dominate our social and business life on the other. He has told us that in India with its population of 300,000,000 in about half the area of the United States, no one actually suffers for food if food is to be had; that only in time of famine, when there is no food, are any allowed to want. He that hath freely gives to him that hath not. What does he see in this country to-day, this country of twice the area of his own and only 65,000,000 of people? Hundreds and thousands cold and starving and half clad, not through a Failure of the food supply, not because there is not plenty of fuel in the land, not because we have no wool and cotton for clothing for there is an abundance and to spare of all these, so that none may suffer but because of our false industrial conditions, because of our selfish greed and grasping, every man for himself regardless of his brother man, so that the few have almost all, the many scarce nothing. Is this Christianity, what Jesus meant when he said "Love thy neighbor as thyself"? I deny it.

Also, when we come to know the facts as to how Ka¬nanda has been treated personally, is it to be wondered at that he has told us some caustic truths about ourselves? In Chicago he was maligned and persecuted by fanatical women-American women, think of it! In this city he has been assailed with most insulting letters in nearly every mail. Before he ever addressed one word to the public here, a woman, be it said to her shame, took it upon herself to attack and most unkindly denounce him to his face in a house to which she was invited as a guest to meet him. He has also been imposed upon and most unjustly dealt with in the management of his lecture tour through his lack of knowledge of our laws and our custom to overreach and take every mean advantage we can in business. He has been preached against in almost savage terms from some of our orthodox pulpits by ministers who know nothing of what he has said except by the newspaper reports, which, I think, were inadequate and greatly misleading. How dare these men pronounce upon him without first hearing him! "Judge not that ye be not judged."

Under these circumstances, is it astonishing that he has told us some of our faults? Indeed, I think he has been exceedingly mild and temperate. It seems to me it is a good thing for us that people outside the Christian world should come and tell us how we appear to them. Give us more Kananda not less, to make us see ourselves as others see us, say I. How is it that we, who claim to worship the gentle Nazarene, who gave us a gospel of toleration and love, were ever ready in the past to kill and torture, and are in the present eager to bitterly attack and persecute those who differ from us? Our preachers preach the universal brotherhood of man, and yet, when the eastern brother comes to us, we have nothing but contumely for him. How can we expect him to form any opinion of us other than he has?

And yet, Kananda, judge us not all to be so narrow and unfeeling. There are some of us, not many, I am sorry to say, who really try to strip our minds of the dogmas and superstitions that have somehow attached themselves to our faith, and to truly follow the humble and tender teacher of Judea, whose love included the whole world, and all of us extend to you the hand of welcome and of fellowship, and say to you, "brother."_x000d_ _x000d_ JUSTITIA.

It seems unfortunate that those who knew Swamiji in the various American cities he visited were not contacted during their lifetime. What a wealth of anecdotes could have been gathered! But at least two incidents, which could have occurred at Freer's dinner party, are preserved by the following item in the Evening News of February 25:

CULTURE AT HOME._x000d_ Anecdotes of Swami Vive Kananda's Visit to Detroit._x000d_ Anecdotes of Swami Vive Kananda's visit are numerous and amusing-at least they must have been amusing to him, although a little humiliating to the American self love. One lady said:_x000d_ "I really was ashamed at the contrast between the knowledge possessed by him and by some of our Detroit men who consider themselves gentlemen of culture. At one dinner party a gentleman asked Kananda what books he would advise him to read on chemistry, whereupon the Hindu monk responded with a long list of English works on this science, which one would naturally expect an American to know more about than a Hindu. Another gentleman followed by a request as to books on astronomy, to which Kananda obligingly answered with another equally good list of English astronomical works. But his growing astonishment reached its climax when a lady spoke of `The Christ,' and said, `What do those words mean?' He again furnished the desired information, but in a tone growing slightly sarcastic."

Probably the choicest example of nineteenth century civilization and culture was given by a lady, who asked Kananda if he liked the English. He very naturally responded that he did not. Then she continued, with fine tact, to pursue the subject still further by touching refer-ences to that pleasant event, the Sepoy rebellion. As the Hindu grew excited she smiled at him ironically and said:_x000d_ "I thought I could disturb your philosophical Eastern calm."

It was indeed rare for Swamiji to grow excited. Those who knew him often remarked upon the fact that no matter how violent his antagonist, he remained always calm and serene. Perhaps the only subject which aroused his anger, particularly in the early days, was that of the English in India-a topic best left undiscussed. But there was no dearth of topics to discuss with Swamiji, who continually surprised and delighted his friends with his unending knowledge on every imaginable subject. The conversations at the private gatherings held for him must have covered many fields-science, history, art, politics and upon each he must have thrown the light not only of his intellectual knowledge but of his spiritual insight. But the subject dearest to his heart was India.

I agree with you so far that faith is a wonderful insight and that it alone can save; but there is the danger in it of breeding fanaticism and barring further progress._x000d_ Jnana is all right; but there is the danger of its becoming dry intellectualism. Love is great and noble; but it may die away in meaningless sentimentalism.

A harmony of all these is the thing required. Ramakrishna was such a harmony. Such beings are few and far between; but keeping him and his teachings as the ideal, we can move on. And if amongst us, each one may not individually attain to that perfection, still we may get it collectively by counteracting, equipoising, adjusting, and fulfilling one another. This would be harmony by a number of persons and a decided advance on all other forms and creeds.

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._x000d_ God, though everywhere, can be known to us in and through human character. No character was ever so perfect as Ramakrishna's, and that should be the centre 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 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 modelling 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 harmonised is virtue._x000d_ 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. Each is welcome to his own peculiarity, but he has no right to criticise the conduct of others, because that would, if followed by him, injure him, much less to insist that others should follow his way. A wife may help some people in this progress, to others she may be a positive injury. But the unmarried man has no right to say that the married disciple is wrong, much less to force his own ideal of morality upon his brother.

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 owing to the difference in density of these layers of clouds. We believe that this is the conscious or unconscious basis of all religions, and that 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._x000d_ 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._x000d_ The soul has neither sex, nor caste, nor imperfection. We believe that nowhere throughout the Vedas, Darshanas, or Puranas, or Tantras, is it ever said that the soul has any sex, creed, or caste. Therefore we agree with those who say, "What has religion to do with social reforms?" But they must also agree with us when we tell them that religion has no business to formulate social laws and insist on the difference between beings, because its aim and end is to obliterate all such fictions and monstrosities.

If it be pleaded that through this difference we would reach the final equality and unity, we answer that the same religion has said over and over again that mud cannot be washed with mud. As if a man can be moral by being immoral!_x000d_ Social laws were created by economic conditions under the sanction of religion. The terrible mistake of religion was to interfere in social matters. But how hypocritically it says and thereby contradicts itself, "Social reform is not the business of religion"! True, what we want is that religion should not be a social reformer, but we insist at the same time that society has no right to become a religious law-giver. Hands off! Keep yourself to your own bounds and everything would come right._x000d_ Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man._x000d_ Religion is the manifestation of the 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._x000d_ Especially, therefore, you must bear in mind that religion has to do only with the soul and has no business to interfere in social matters; you must also bear in mind that this applies completely to the mischief which has already been done. It is as if a man after forcibly taking possession of another's property cries through the nose when that man tries to regain it--and preaches the doctrine of the sanctity of human right!

What business had the priests to interfere (to the misery of millions of human beings) in every social matter?_x000d_ You speak of the meat-eating Kshatriya. Meat or no meat, it is they who are the fathers of all that is noble and beautiful in Hinduism. Who wrote the Upanishads? Who was Rama? Who was Krishna? Who was Buddha? Who were the Tirthankaras of the Jains? Whenever the Kshatriyas have preached religion, they have given it to everybody; and whenever the Brahmins wrote anything, they would deny all right to others. Read the Gita and the Sutras of Vyasa, or get someone to read them to you. In the Gita the way is laid open to all men and women, to all caste and colour, but Vyasa tries to put meanings upon the Vedas to cheat the poor Shudras. Is God a nervous fool like you that the flow of His river of mercy would be dammed up by a piece of meat? If such be He, His value is not a pie!

Hope nothing from me, but I am convinced as I have written to you, and spoken to you, that India is to be saved by the Indians themselves. So you, young men of the motherland, can dozens of you become almost fanatics over this new ideal? Take thought, collect 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 could do nothing on account of this jealousy. Think of me as one who has done all his duty and is now dead and gone. Think that the whole work is upon your shoulders. Think that you, young men of our motherland, are destined to do this. Put yourselves 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 caste or any other social evil. Preach to let "hands off", and everything will come right._x000d_ My blessings on you all, my brave, steadfast, and loving souls.

The following Sunday (March 4) an editorial which ran in two papers, the Tribune and the Sunday News Tribune, evinced some surprise that the ministry had reacted to Swamiji with so much hysteria:

VIVE KANANDA_x000d_ _x000d_ No hurt can yet come to any truth by stirring up the turbid streams of opinion. No evil has resulted to humanity since the days of creation by agitating the sources of religious belief. The pool of Bethesda had no healing power till the angel had troubled its waters, and no doctrine, dogma, creed or item of faith is too sacred to be troubled by the spirit of inquiry and examined with a view of finding upon what it rests.

It does not seem to the secular intellect as though christianity could be imperiled by the public lectures of a single benighted Hindu who stands up and in good queen's English gives some reasons why he thinks the religion of his country has hardly been judged fairly by the missionaries who have been sent to India. The natural man can hardly perceive why a dozen or score of talented and orthodox divines, brightest examples of christian learning and culture, should consider it needful to pound the dust all out of their pulpit cushions in declaiming against one poor pagan who stands alone to defend his ancestral religion in a country where he is surrounded by millions upon millions of christians; and where the fixed habits and customs and social and religious life of the people have been moulded by generations of christians and christian teachers.

It ought to be very safe for christians who know what they believe and why they believe it to hear Vive Kananda or anybody else. If they carry their faith around on a plate and it is liable to slip off at the least joggle, it is high time for it to be joggled.

Plainly speaking, it does not seem to be worthy of the dignity of christian clergymen in a great city to leave all other topics and cry out with one voice against any un¬believer who may chance to speak publicly against the prevailing religion of the churches. It is not worth while for clergyman who respects the intelligence of his hearers to declare that there is only one religion in the world. Most men carry brains around with them all through the week, and they can be trusted to cling to the doctrines which they understand and believe. It is vain and foolish to undertake to smother discussion. It is ridiculous for a protestant clergyman to lay down a rule that the faithful of his flock shall hear only those preachers with whom they are in entire accord. There may not be much use in religious controversy, but there is a great deal of use in getting at other people's thoughts and ways of thinking. A late revered and admired bishop in Michigan said in connection with his reading of books upon oriental faiths that "the time had come when religion must be studied comparatively." Vive Kananda has helped us in such a study.

Clearly, the writer. of the above editorial did not grasp the main issue. There was every reason for the more narrow clergymen to declaim against Swamiji, for theirs was a creed from which the age itself was moving away. The American people were, on the whole, searching for a more liberal and more rational faith, one which would be applicable to an expanding world, and Swamiji was the very personification of that faith. He himself later wrote: "The orthodox section of this country are crying for help; . . . They are mortally afraid of me and exclaim, `What a pest! Thousands of men and women follow him! He is going to root out orthodoxy!"' The word "pest" was an understatement. To every narrow mind Swamiji was the archenemy to be eliminated at any cost.

To this end, the Baptists of Detroit held a mass meeting on March 5. Among the speakers was a Dr. W. B. Boggs of Cincinnati, Ohio, who had spent several years in India as the principal of the Telegu Theological Seminary at Ramepatan and could therefore, it was presumed, speak with authority. India is the most idolatrous land on the face of the earth," he declared. "The land is full of idols, not only in the temples, but by the wayside, on the tank embankments, at the public wells, in the fields, in their houses, idols of all sorts representing gods and goddesses, fabulous creatures, and beasts and reptiles. Many of these images are monstrous, repulsive, obscene. . . . A1l the foulest crimes that have ever entered into the imagination of man are to be found in the characters of some of the divinities that they worship."

Dr. Boggs next took up the caste system, "one of the masterpieces of Satan," wherein he found a weapon with which to deliver a blow at Swamiji. "The Brahmans," he said, "look with unconcealed disdain upon those of the lower castes and will tell you it is `physically nauseating, etc: And these are the men that will come to this country and talk with mellifluous words about the `Brotherhood of Man.' It is just as consistent for a Brahman to talk about the brotherhood of man as it would be for a Japanese to boast that chastity and moral purity are a distinguishing characteristic of his nation. . . ."

"There is no saving light in Hinduism," concluded Dr. Boggs. "There is no Savior in Hinduism. Christ alone can save India. . . . The need of Christian missions in India was never exaggerated and never can be. The need was never greater than it is today.

A Dr. Mabie and a Dr. Gordon spoke in somewhat the same vein at the Baptist mass meeting, Dr. Gordon concluding his talk with the following remarks: "I never believed in parlia¬ments of religion because all forms of religion aside from christianity are counterfeits. There is every evidence that all religions except that which treats of the one Christ are bogus. We had better stand by the religion of Jesus Christ. We must still send out missionaries and have an abundance of faith."

This was the crux of the matter: the missionaries not only must go out, but must go out as God's elect. That a heathen should be preaching religion in the West, that he should be followed and revered by thousands, was an intolerable, unforgivable affront.

MIGHT AS WELL BE BURNED_x000d_ Another Indian Missionary Talks of Kananda's Ideas_x000d_ The Missionary Society of the Fort Street Presbyterian Church held its annual meeting at the residence of Allan Shelden, West Fort street, yesterday afternoon. Rev. J. F. Dickie read the scripture lesson and Rev. Mr. Edwards led in prayer . . . Mrs. Harvey, the president, made a short address and then introduced Rev. Dr. Thackwell, who has been a missionary in India for 45 years, under the presbyterian board.

Dr. Thackwell said he thought that the work of the foreign missionary was the greatest work in the world. . . . In speaking of the former habit of burning widows alive, he said that some of them question whether their condition was changed any or not by the law. Before they knew their fate, but now it is a living death. Some people may come over here, as did Kananda, and say that the widow's position is improved, but if it is true then the word of all returned missionaries is untrue. The widow is stripped of her jewels and her finery and a coarse garment placed upon her and she is thenceforth the Cinderella of the family. The belief in regard to their being burned was that the gods were displeased and to insure the husband's salvation his widow must die.

Many female babies are strangled to death, in some cases by their mothers. Marriage and death are principal causes of the national poverty. The son is not exempt from the debts of his forefathers. The girl upon marriage has to be furnished a dower and in order to avoid it, the females are murdered by the thousands. The Brahmins have never tried to prevent these atrocities, but the English government is using its influence to stop them. The Brahmins have not much power in the cities but flourish in the outlying country, where the missionaries have not yet established themselves. . . .

The women uphold their religion because they have more religious fervor and are entirely sincere. The mother brings her little ones to the idol and teaches them to worship it and thus through a mother's constant devotion and influence another idolator is reared. It is the women that must be reached and when they are converted to Christ they will bring up their children in the new faith.

The greatest men of India will attend receptions given by the viceroy. They will come in their richest costumes and chat with the Europeans, but on going home they divest themselves of their clothing and bathe, to rid themselves of the pollution. . . . The Hindu idea of God is that He is wrathful and thirsty for human blood, that He is ready to wreak His vengeance and they must appease Him. Among various methods to attain His pleasure is to lie naked on a plank studded with sharp nails, to hold an arm or leg up until the limb becomes withered. They punish their bodies for the sin of their souls. If they will come over to the side of christianity they will become a power for good. [And so on.]

. . . Since the Parliament [Swami Vivekananda] has been lecturing before large audiences in the principal cities of the United States and has received an ovation wherever he went. He has often been invited to preach in Christian pulpits and has by all who have heard him on any occasion, and still more by those who have made his personal acquaintance, been always spoken of in terms of the highest admiration. The most rigid or orthodox Christians say of him, "He is indeed a prince among men," even when they find it necessary, for the sake of their time honoured prejudices, to add, "but he must be altogether an exception: of course there are no other Hindus like him."

As intense [as] is the astonished admiration which the personal presence and bearing and language of Paramahansa Vivekananda have wrung from a public accustomed to think of Hindus-thanks to the fables and half truths of the missionaries-as ignorant and degraded "heathen", there is no doubt that the continued interest is largely due to a genuine hunger for the spiritual truths which India through him has offered to the American people.

America is starving for spiritual nourishment in spite of its absorption in material things, in spite of the ignorance and provincialism of its upper classes and the savagery of its lower, there are many souls scattered everywhere throughout its great population who are thirsty for higher things. Europe has always been indebted to India for its spiritual inspirations. There is little, very little of high thought and aspiration in Christendom which cannot be traced to one or another of the successive influxes of Hindu ideas: either to the Hinduised Mazdaism of the Gnostics, to the Hinduised Judaism of the Kabbalists, or to the Hinduised Mohamedanism of the Moorish philosophers, to say nothing of the Hinduised Socialism of the New England Transcendentalists and the many other new streams of Orientalising influence which are fertilising the soul of contemporary Christendom. . . .

All the Hinduising forces hitherto at work have re¬ceived a notable impulse from the labours of Swami Vivekananda. Never before has so authoritative a representative of genuine Hinduism-as opposed to the emasculated and Anglicised versions of it so common in these days-been accessible to American inquirers. . : .

A few, and only a few, representatives of the extreme orthodox wing of the protestant Christian community have been provoked into hostile criticism by jealousy of his success. But this has come exclusively from religionists of an abnormal and obsolescent type, and, as a rule, jealousy and sectarian animosity even from this quarter have been silenced by the uniform kindliness and good will, as well as the learning and dignity and personal charm, of the orange robed monk From the land of the Bharatas.

The fact was that the animosity of the orthodox wing of the Protestant Christian community had not yet, at the date of Mr. Snell's letter, reared its ugly head. It was to do so about a month later.