The year 1894 was the most battle-torn of Swami Vivekananda's life in the West. But it was also one of the most creative years of his mission in regard not only to his American work, but to the work he was to start in India as well. The early phase of his work in America has been described; but the way in which he simultaneously set in motion his future work in India through the power of his thoughts and words should here be told, if a gap is not to be left in the story of his life.

This story is unfolded mainly in the letters the Swami wrote to India from America in 1893-94. probably no other of his writings are so charged with apostolic fire as his letters; and of all his letters, those written at this time to his Indian disciples, friends and brother-disciples are particularly dynamic. Written when he was besieged by powerful forces bent on destroying him and his work; they reveal that his vision remained ever crystal clear regarding the mandate that his Master had given him. Even in the battle at its thickest he never deviated from the "Mother's work" that he had been commissioned by Shri Ramakrishna to do and that he had started to do immediately after the Master's passing away. Although it is not known whether or not he consciously planned everything he said and did, one can discover in these letters an evolving pattern of prophetic leadership, which combined supreme idealism dedicated to the emancipation of mankind with the realistic approach of one who has to deal with the hard facts of the world. That leadership was steeped in an oceanic love for Man.

The "Mother's work" consisted primarily and essentially in the communication of spirituality. Once, speaking of Shri Ramakrishna, the Swami said:_x000d_ My Master taught me this lesson hundreds of times, yet I often forget it. Few understand the power of thought. If a man goes into a cave, shuts himself in, and thinks one really great thought and dies, that thought will penetrate the walls of that cave, vibrate through space, and at last permeate the whole human race. Such is the power of thought; be in no hurry therefore to give your thoughts to others. First have something to give. He alone teaches who has something to give, for teaching is not talking, teaching is not imparting doctrines, it is communicating. Spirituality can be communicated just as really as I can give you a flower. This is true in the most literal sense.

This "communication of spirituality" was the unshakeable aim of the Swami's mission from start to finish. It was not that he was unconversant with the new socio-economic thinking of his times; he was well up in such matters. But he also knew, in accord with ancient Indian wisdom, that whatever system was not built on spirituality-be it religious or social, political or economic-was not built on strong, enduring Foundations. Moreover, even before his Master’s, passing away, he had already become spiritually illumined, knowing reality by direct experience and perceiving the purpose of human life in the light of that experience. It is only the illumined person, fully aware of the dimensions of man, who can understand human problems in right perspective; and Shri Ramakrishna had delib¬erately, one could say forcibly, turned the mind and heart of the Swami toward humanity, charging him to teach. This was the task laid on him by his guru, and as Shri Ramakrishna had set no limit to this task, it had ultimately to become a global one.

Even before the Master set before him this mission, young Naren had in his days of Sadhana (spiritual practices) at Dakshineswar manifested some predilection for it. After hearing from Shri Ramakrishna the words "not compassion to Jivas but service to them as Shiva", Naren had, in effect, declared, unprompted by anyone, that he had a world mission, namely, as he said, to "proclaim everywhere in the world this wonderful truth that I have heard today".

The mandate, that Shri Ramakrishna directly gave his great disciple was along the same lines. A few days before his passing away, he wrote on a piece of paper: "Naren will teach others." Young Naren rebelled; yet in his heart did he not know that his Master could not be denied? That he had renounced the world keenly aware that a great mission awaited him, requiring total sacrifice, is borne out by a letter he wrote from America on January 29, 1894, to Haridas Viharidas Desai, Dewan of Junagadh. The latter, while in Calcutta, had gone to see the Swami's mother and his monastic brothers. The Dewan's report of this visit gave rise to a revelation of the workings of the Swami's mind and heart. He wrote in reply:

You had been to sec my poor mother and brothers. I am glad you did. But you have touched the only soft place in my heart. You ought to know, Dewanji, that I am no hard-hearted brute. If there is any being I love in the whole world, it is my mother. Yet I believed and still believe that without my giving up the world, the great mission which Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, my great Master, came to preach would not see the light, and where would those young men be who have stood as bulwarks against the surging waves of materialism and luxury of the day? These have done a great amount of good to India, especially to Bengal, and this is only the beginning. With the Lord's help they will do things for which the whole world will bless them for ages. So, on the one hand, my vision of the future of Indian religion and that of the whole world, my love for the millions of beings sinking down and down for ages with nobody to help them, nay, nobody with even a thought for them; on the other hand, making those Who are nearest and dearest to me miserable; I chose the former. "Lord will do the rest." He is with me, I am sure of that if of anything. So long as I am sincere, nothing can resist me, because He will be my help.

Although the Swami renounced the world with an over¬powering sense of divine mission, it was to take years for him to be clear in his mind about, and carry into practice the full implications of his Master's command. During those years, in the days of his wandering, he did indeed enter caves and think great, world-moving thoughts; but it was not thus that his mission was to be fulfilled. As he himself said later on, every time he entered a cave, some force before long threw him out, back into the concourse of men-suffering men, seeking men. There was profound meaning in this. Shri Ramakrishna had fashioned him with infinite care so that he would remove the miseries of people and teach mankind, and Shri Ramakrishna was now seeing to it that the disciple did just that.

Moving through India from July 1890 onward the Swami was, just by his presence and the power of his thoughts and words, setting his work in motion. He was even then functioning in the role of a teacher of men and giver of light. His thought and efforts were never for himself, but always for the good of the many, for the happiness of the many. During his wanderings over India the Swami noticed that when a society became stagnant, all kinds of tyranny developed within it. This was the state of Hindu society at that time.

And over and above all, we must cease to tyrannize. To what a ludicrous state are we brought! If a Bhangi comes to anybody as a Bhangi, he would be shunned as the plague; but no sooner does he get a cupful of water poured upon his head with some mutterings of prayas by a Padri [padre], and get a coat on his back, no matter how threadbare, and come into the room of the most orthodox Hindu-I don't see the roan who then dare refuse him a chair and a hearty shake of hands ! Irony can go no further. And come and see what they, the Padris, are doing here in the Dakshin (south). They are converting the lower classes by lakhs; and in Travancore, the most priest-ridden country in India-where every bit of land is owned by the Brahmins . . . nearly one-fourth has become Christian! And I cannot blame them; what part have they in David and what in Jesse? When, when, O Lord, shall man be brother to man?

Come, be men! Come out of your narrow holes and have a look abroad. See how nations are on the march! Do you love man? Do you love your country? Then come, let us struggle for higher and better things; look not back, no, not even if you see the dearest and nearest cry. Look not back, but forward!_x000d_ India wants the sacrifice of at least a thousand of her young men -men, mind, and not brutes. . . . How many men unselfish, thorough¬going men, is Madras ready now to supply, to struggle unto life and death to bring about a new state of things sympathy for the poor, and bread to their hungry mouths, enlightenment to the people at large-and struggle unto death to make men of them who have been brought to the level of beasts, by the tyranny of your forefathers?

Yesterday Mrs. Johnson, the lady superintendent of the women's prison, was here. They don't call it prison but reformatory here. It is the grandest thing I have seen in America. How the inmates are benevolently treated, how they are reformed and sent back as useful members of society; how grand, how beautiful, you must see to believe! And, oh, how my heart ached to think of what we think of the poor, the low, in India. They have no chance, no escape, no way to climb up. The poor, the low, the sinner in India have no friends, no help-they cannot rise, try however they may. They sink lower and lower every day, they feel the blows showered upon them by a cruel society, and they do not know whence the blow comes. They have forgotten that they too are men. And the result is slavery. Thoughtful people within the last few years have seen it, but unfortunately laid it at the door of the Hindu religion, and to them, the only way of bettering is by crushing this grandest religion of the world. Hear me, my friend, I have discovered the secret through the grace of the Lord. Religion is not in fault. On the other hand, your religion teaches you that every being is only your own self multiplied. But it was the want of practical application, the want of sympathy -the want of heart. The Lord once more came to you as Buddha and taught you how to feel, how to sympathize with the poor, the miserable, the sinner, but you heard Him not. Your priests invented the horrible story that the Lord was here for deluding demons with false doctrines True indeed, but we are the demons, not those that believed. And just as the Jews denied the Lord Jesus and are since that day wandering over the world as homeless beggar, tyrannized over by everybody, so you are bond-slaves to any nation that thinks it worth while to rule over you. Ah, tyrants! You do not know that the obverse is tyranny, and the reverse slavery. The slave and the tyrant are synonymous.

The Swami envisaged a national regeneration in which all, particularly the downtrodden masses, would be given every opportunity and assistance to achieve all-round progress and well-being. When the Swami wrote in the letter just quoted that the Buddha came to teach us "how to feel, how to sympathize with the poor, the miserable, the sinner", was not the compassion and enlightenment of the Buddha once more finding its way into the national consciousness of India through his words? Was not the same Spirit that worked through the Buddha now working through the Swami? The ultimate goal towards which all were to move, according to both teachers, was spiritual salvation. By and large the world, accustomed to political uprisings devoid of all concepts of spiritual salvation, would take ages to learn the need of spiritual values in social and political movements; but India was, through the Swami, being shown that need.

The leader-sage wrote in this same letter of August 20:_x000d_ A hundred thousand men and women, fired with the zeal of holiness, fortified with eternal faith in the Lord, nerved to lion's courage by their sympathy for the poor and the fallen and the downtrodden, will go over the length and breadth of the land, preaching the gospel of salvation, the gospel of help, the gospel of social raising-up-the gospel of equality._x000d_ No religion on earth preaches the dignity of humanity in such a lofty strain as Hinduism, and no religion on earth treads upon the necks of the poor and the low in such a fashion as Hinduism. The Lord has shown me that religion is not in fault, but it is the Pharisees and Sadducees in Hinduism, hypocrites, who invent all sorts of engines of tyranny in the shape of doctrines of Paramarthika [absolute] and Vyavaharika [relative].

When the Swami emphatically wrote "The Lord has shown me . . ." he meant what he said. It was the Lord-shown way he was treading and Lord-given words he was speaking. He was ever aware that the Lord stood directly behind his movements.

In this letter of August 20, when he had yet to find his bearings in America, he wrote:_x000d_ A hundred times I had a mind to go out of the country and go back to India. But I am determined; and I have a call from Above; I see no way, but His eyes see. And I must stick to my guns, life or death. . . Despair not- remember the Lord says in the Gita, "To work you have the right, but not to the result." Gird up your loins, my boy. I am called by the Lord for this.

And in his earlier letter of August 20, 1893, from Breezy Meadows, the Swami had also told them what was required of them:_x000d_ 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. . . . Vow, then, to devote your whole lives to the cause of the redemption of these three hundred millions, going down and down every day.

Swami Vivekananda, in setting his Indian work in motion, was intent to see that it would not stop until the goal was reached. He did not make his appeal sweet. His demand was total because nothing less would suffice for the task of India's regeneration.

In the same letter he continued:_x000d_ It is not the work of a day, and the path is full of the most deadly thorns. But Parthasarathi [Shri Krishna] is ready to be our Sarathi [charioteer]--we know that. And in His name and with eternal faith in Him, set fire to the mountain of misery that has been heaped upon India for ages-and it shall be burned down. Come then, look it in the face, brethren, it is a grand task, and we are so low. But we are the sons of Light and children of God. 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 so-called 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.

Across continents and oceans the Swami's mind was always awake at the sick-bed of his Motherland. "There are some", he wrote, "who see, feel, and shed tears of blood in their hearts , who think that there is a remedy . . . And who are ready to apply this remedy at any cost, even to the giving up of life." He who penned these words was himself ready to give up his life without question for the cause. That was why his letters were to those who read and re-read them a galvanizing force. Who could withstand their appeal and charge? Who would not be quickened to the depths of his being, if he had any manhood left in him? And who, among those who had, would not answer the Swami's call to action? To do so was to move forward in spirituality; for purity, sincerity, and selfless love were what his call demanded. They were to work as the instruments of God.

Day by day I am feeling that the Lord is with me, and I am trying to follow His direction- His will be done. . . . We will do great things for the world, and that for the sake of doing good and not for name and fame._x000d_ "Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and die." Be of good cheer and believe that we are selected by the Lord to do great things, and we will do them. Hold yourself in readiness, i.e., be pure and holy, and love for love's sake. Love the poor, the miserable, the down. Trodden, and the Lord will bless you.

The Swami's letter to Alasinga of November 2, 1893, was the first known letter to his countrymen in which he reported his success at the Parliament of Religions. He told of the tribute paid him by the American people, but soon turned to the theme of his heart-the uplift of India:

The Hindu must not give up his religion, but must keep religion within its proper limits and give freedom to society to grow. All the reformers in India made the serious mistake of holding religion accountable for all the horrors of priest-craft and degeneration, and went forthwith to pull down the indestructible structure, and what was the result? Failure! Beginning from Buddha down to Ram Mohan Roy, everyone made the mistake of holding caste to be a religious institution and tried to pull down religion and caste all together, and failed. But in spite of all the ravings of the priests, caste is simply a crystallized social institution, which after doing its service is now filling the atmosphere of India with its stench, and it can only be removed by giving back to the people their lost social individuality. Every man born here knows that he is a man. Every man born in India knows that he is a slave of society. Now, freedom is the only condition of growth; take that off, the result is degeneration. With the introduction of modern competition, see how caste is disappearing fast! No religion is now necessary to kill it. The Brahmana shopkeeper, shoemaker, and wine-distiller are common in Northern India. And why? Because of competition. No man is prohibited from doing anything he pleases for his livelihood under the present Government, and the result is neck and neck competition, and thus thousands are seeking and finding the highest level they were born for, instead of vegetating at the bottom.

My idea is to bring to the door of the meanest, the poorest, the noble ideas that the human race has developed both in and out of India, and let them think for themselves. Whether there should be caste or not, whether women should be perfectly free or not, does not concern me. "Liberty of thought and action is the only condition of life, of growth and well-being." Where it does not exist, the man, the race, the nation must go down._x000d_ Caste or no caste, creed or no creed, any man, or class, or caste, or nation, or institution which bars the power of free thought and action of an individual-even so long as that power does not injure others-is devilish and must go down.

These words of awakening that the Swami spoke to the soul of his nation from afar were to roll through its consciousness as a healing and strengthening power, working from within outward. He continued:_x000d_ My whole ambition in life is to set in motion a machinery which will bring noble ideas to the door of everybody, and then let men and women settle their own fate. Let them know what our forefathers as well as other nations have thought on the most momentous questions of life. Let them see specially what others are doing now, and then decide. We are to put the chemicals together, the crystallization will be done by nature according to her laws. Work hard, be steady, and have faith in the Lord. Set to work, I am coming sooner or later. Keep the motto before you-- `Elevation of the masses without injuring their religion."

Among those whose thoughts have changed the course of history, few perhaps understood the need to improve the lot of people without injury to their religious faith. Among modern Indian thinkers, it was Swami Vivekananda who first gave the highest priority to the elevation of the masses through means that would not disturb their inherent spiritual culture. It was he who saw that regeneration of the nation would be otherwise impossible: only a basic, religion-oriented restoration of the downtrodden would do. In the same letter he went on:

Remember that the nation lives in the cottage. But, alas! nobody ever did anything for them. Our modern reformers are very busy about widow remarriage. OC course, I am a sympathizer in every reform, but the fate of a nation does not depend upon the number of husbands the widows get, but upon the condition of the masses. Can you raise them? Can you give them back their lost individuality without making them lose their innate spiritual nature? Can you become an occidental of occidentals in your spirit of equality, freedom, work, and energy, and at the same time a Hindu to the very backbone in religious culture and instincts? This is to be done and we will do it. You are all born to do it. Have faith in yourselves, great convictions are the mothers of great deeds. Onward for ever! Sympathy for the poor, the downtrodden, even unto death-this is our motto.

Among the Swami's ideas for the regeneration of India, those that chiefly found expression through these letters to his Indian followers were: (1) the need to raise the masses, giving them opportunities for all-round development "without injuring their religion"; (2) the need to remove untouchability; (3) the need for the well-to-do to assist the suffering millions; (4) the need to give women opportunities for proper education and self improvement; (5) the need for the universal spread of the right kind of education; (6) the need to cultivate the material sciences; (7) the need for technological and industrial develop¬ment; and, above all, (8) the need to give freedom to society for its onward movement. On these themes he did not write a thesis; he simply spoke from the depth of his at--one--ment with the suffering millions as occasion required.

For example, on India's need to better the condition of her women, he wrote on December 28, 1893:_x000d_ Do you know who is the real "Shakti-worshipper"? It is he who knows that God is the omnipresent force in the universe and sees in women the manifestation of that Force. Many men here [in America] look upon their women in this light. Manu, again, has said that gods bless those families where women are happy and well treated. Here men treat their women as well as can be desired, and hence they are so prosperous, so learned, so free, and so energetic. But why is it that we are slavish, miserable, and dead? The answer is obvious.

And how pure and chaste are they here! Few women are married before twenty or twenty-five, and they are as free as the birds in the air. They go to market, school and college, earn money, and do all kinds of work. Those who are well-to-do devote themselves to doing good to the poor. And what are we doing? We are very regular in marrying our girls at eleven years of age lest they should become corrupt and immoral. What does our Manu enjoin? "Daughters should be supported and educated with as much care and attention as the sons." As sons should be married after observing Brahmacharya up to the thirtieth year, so daughters also must observe Brahmacharya and be educated by their parents. But what are we actually doing? Can you better the condition of your women? Then there will be hope for your well-being. Otherwise you will remain as backward as you are now.

If the Swami. Was planning a revolution, it was to be a God-centred revolution in which everyone was to share in the benefits. He did not say just how human society was to be organized. He wanted For every individual a man-making education and freedom of thought and action, so that all might grow and achieve well-being. Provided that people on all levels of society had these opportunities, it did not matter much what shape the socio-political and economic systems took. Institutions-social, political, and economic-were for human beings, not human beings for institutions. Though, in the India of his time, his revolutionary ideas were unsettling to the privileged, they were acceptable to the people at large, and this because he taught like a prophet, with authority. God was always central in his thought and so he spoke in the language of all, from the highest to lowest. He advocated such methods as would be for the good of everyone who at9opted them. If some sections of Indian society failed at the time to comprehend the broad, beneficent sweep of his vision, he did not care.

Many and many in India could not understand me; and how could they, poor men? Their thoughts never strayed beyond the everyday routine business of eating and drinking. I know only a few noble souls like yourself appreciate roe. Lord bless your noble self. But appreciation or no appreciation, I am born to organize these young men; nay, hundreds more in every city are ready to join me; and I want to send them rolling like irresistible waves over India, bringing comfort, morality, religion, education to the doors of the meanest and the most downtrodden. And this I will do or die.

In his teachings the Swami anticipated the socio-economic revolutions of the future and suggested measures by which their violence and bloodshed would be avoided. "Three things", he wrote in the same letter, "are necessary to make every man great, every nation great: ( 1 ) Conviction of the powers of goodness. (2) Absence of jealousy and suspicion. (3) Helping all who are trying to be and do good."

Fully conversant with the disheartening realities of the Indian situation though the Swami was, his sturdy and reasoned faith in the destiny of the nation never wavered. In the sweep of the gaze that he cast across the oceans from Chicago, India stood, in prospect, resplendent and unshackled. Thus he continues:

Three men cannot act in concert together in India for five minutes. Each one struggles for power, and in the long run the whole organiza¬tion comes to grief. Lord! Lord! When will we learn not to be jealous! In such a nation, and especially in Bengal, to create a band of men who are tied and bound together with a most undying love in spite of difference, is it not wonderful? This band will increase. This idea of wonderful liberality joined with eternal energy and progress must spread over India. It must electrify the whole nation and must enter the very pores of society in spite of the horrible ignorance, spite; caste feeling, old boobyism, and jealousy which are the heritage of this nation of slaves.

And the wonder of it was that these nation¬ building letters were written in the midst of his hectic lecture tours and drawn-out battle in America. The West was in need of the precious and potent message of Vedanta, and the Swami was giving it; but to do so he was "having to fight every inch of the ground with orthodox inimical Christians". At the same time he was preparing the Indian mind, so long sterile, to receive the seeds of his reawakening message.

It was not only to his disciples and friends that the Swami wrote from America. He poured even more energy and fire into the letters written to his brother-disciples at the Baranagore Math. It was they-the monastic brotherhood of Shri Ramakrishna-who were to form the heart of his Indian work and, of course, of his world mission as a whole. To them he looked for total cooperation. To them he expressed his anguish of heart and his hopes for his country, and to them he wrote in detail about methods of work, of organization, and about the place of Shri Ramakrishna and his Order in the future of India. All of this came upon the monks at Baranagore as a surprise, for their Naren had not before spoken to them in any detail-if at all of these dreams and plans. Certainly, he had not spoken of these things with such practical seriousness, nor had he spoken as a leader intent on giving a new shape, a new purpose, and a new meaning to Indian monasticism.

As readers will recall, he had left the Baranagore Math in the middle of 1890 to wander through India. Even before leaving the monastery, he had made it clear to his brothers that he wanted to be alone. Although in the first phase of his wandering Swami Akhandananda had accompanied him, after a few months the Swami had insisted on travelling alone. Occasionally, by chance, he had met one or another of his brother¬disciples in the expanses of northern and western India. From February 1891 onwards he was rarely in touch with them. Mostly by himself, he roamed over his own country as the inner spirit guided him, learning, teaching, practising austerities, and witnessing at first hand the heart-rending condition of the Indian people. Thus even while he was still in India, his brother-disciples were so much out of touch with him that they did not quite know how his mind was working and at what he was aiming. Nor was the Swami's uncommunicativeness accidental: for had he not written to Swami Saradananda on July 15, 1890, "I have my own plans for the future, and they shall be a secret"?

Then again, it was not his brother-disciples who were the first to hear from him after the news of his success at the Parlia¬ment of Religions had burst over India. Rather, as we have seen above, it was his disciples in Madras to whom he wrote during his early months in America. The Chicago Parliament # _x000d_ was over on September 27, 1893; his first letter to the monks at Baranagore Math, addressed to Swami Ramakrishnananda, was written not earlier than January of 1894. After this, however, the flow of his letters to his brother-disciples continued until he returned to India in January 1897.

That steady current of written words was a spontaneous welling forth of the Swami's mind, heart, and soul. It brought before the brothers their beloved Naren, but now grown incredibly beyond the greatness of his that was familiar to them. Writing in Bengali, he poured out now with great depth of feeling, now in prophetic vein, now in powerful exhortation, now with merry humour-a message that was awe-inspiring and soul-stirring. It naturally took them time to understand him rightly.

Even as, in the preceding six months or so, he had been infusing into the hearts of his Madras disciples his own compassion, and awakening in their minds his own keen awareness of the inhumanity of India's prevailing social system, in the same way he now set to work on his brother-disciples. But to them he at once sketched out a remedy in the application of which they were to be the primary instruments. In his first letter to the Baranagore Math from America he told of his vision and his plan. It was his brothers' first inkling of how he intended to carry out the mission laid on him by their Master:

A country where millions of people live on flowers of the Mohua plant, a million or two of sadhus and a hundred million or so of Brahmins suck the blood out of these poor people, without even the least effort for their amelioration-is that a country or hell? Is that a religion, or the devil's dance?. . .

My brother, in view of all this, specially of the poverty and ignorance, I had no sleep. At Cape Comorin sitting in Mother Kumari's temple, sitting on the last bit of Indian rock-I hit upon a plan: We are so many sannyasins wandering about, and teaching the people metaphysics-it is all madness. Did not our Gurudeva[Divine Master] use to say, "An empty stomach is no good for religion"? That those poor people are leading the life of brutes is simply due to ignorance. We have for all ages been sucking their blood and trampling them underfoot.

. . . Suppose some disinterested sannyasins, bent on doing good to others, go from village to village, disseminating education and seeking in various ways to better the condition of all down to the Chandala, through oral teaching, and by means of maps, cameras, globes, and such other accessories-can't that bring forth good in time? All these plans I cannot write out in this short letter. The long and the short of it is-if the mountain does not come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain. The poor are too poor to come to schools and Pathashalas, and they will gain nothing by reading poetry and all that sort of thing. We, as a nation, have lost our individuality, and that is the cause of all mischief in India. We have to give back to the nation its lost individuality and raise the masses. The Hindu, the Mohammedan, the Christian, all have trampled them underfoot. Again the force to raise them must come from inside, that is, from the orthodox Hindus. In every country the evils exist not with, but against, religion. Religion therefore is not to blame, but men.

To effect this, the first thing we need is men, and the next is funds. Through the grace of our Guru I was sure to get from ten to fifteen men in every town. I next travelled in search of funds, but do you think the people of India were going to spend money! . . . Selfishness personified-are they to spend anything? Therefore I have come to America, to earn money myself, and then return to my country and devote the rest of my days to the realization of this one aim of my life.

As our country is poor in social virtues, so this country is lacking in spirituality. I give them spirituality, and they give me money. I do not know how long I shall take to realize my end. . . . These people are not hypocrites, and jealousy is altogether absent in them. I depend on no one in Hindusthan. I shall try to earn the wherewithal myself to the best of my might and carry out my plans, or die in the attempt. . . . When death is certain, it is best to sacrifice oneself for a good cause."

You may perhaps think what Utopian nonsense all this is! You little know what is in me. If any of you help me in my plans, all right, or Gurudeva will show me the way out. . . .

I am giving you a new idea. If you cad work it out, then I shall know you are men and will be of service. . . . Make an organized 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?. . .

Come ! Apply yourselves heart and soul to it. The day of gossip and ceremonials is gone, my boy, you must work now.

. . . We must electrify society, electrify the world. Idle gossip and barren ceremonials won't do. Ceremonials are meant for house holders, your work is the distribution and propagation of thought -currents. If you can do that, then it is all right. . . .

. . . 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 incur¬ring personal damnation-"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.

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, "Look upon your mother as God, look upon your father as God"-but I say, "The poor, the illiterate, the ignorant, the afflicted-let these be your God." Know that service to these alone is the highest religion.

These unconventional ideas of Hindu monasticism and its purpose flowed from the Swami's pen with bewildering force. They would perhaps have been unacceptable to his brother-disciples, whose lives were tending to become cast in the traditional monastic mould-the practice of austerities and devotions, with no concern for the world-, had it not been that these same letters flamed with proof of their great brother's fathomless devotion and loyalty to Shri Ramakrishna. They could not dismiss his startling ideas as merely the effects of occidental influence on his mind; for they, themselves advanced in spirituality, could read between the lines that Naren's devotion to his Master was without compare, and that the Master's teachings were the unalloyed source of his inspiration.

Moreover, they had not forgotten what Shri Ramakrishna had repeatedly prophesied about Naren's future work and achievements; nor had they forgotten that Naren had been chosen leader of the brotherhood by the Master himself. Though some of the brother-disciples were not fully convinced of the rightness and efficacy of his ideas until he himself cleared their doubts on his return to India in 1897, they by and large believed that he was working as an instrument in the Lord's hands: His letters to them were replete with evidence of his own conviction in this respect, and his convictions were, they knew, characteristically rational and objective in nature.

. . . The priests tried their utmost to snub me. But the Guru is with me, what could anybody do? And the whole American nation loves and respects me, pays my expenses, and reveres me as a Guru. . . . It was not in the power of your priests to do anything against me.

To work, with undaunted energy! What fear! Who is powerful enough to thwart you ! "We shall crush the stars to atoms, and unhinge the universe. Don't you know who we are? We are the servants of Shri Ramakrishna." Fear?. . . "It is those foolish people who identify themselves with their bodies, that piteously cry, `We are weak, we are weak, we are low.' All this is atheism. Now that we have attained the state beyond fear, we shall have no more fear and become heroes. This indeed is the theism which we, the servants of Shri Ramakrishna, will choose.

"Giving up the attachment for the world and drinking constantly the supreme nectar of immortality, for ever discarding that self seeking spirit which is the mother of all dissension, and ever meditating on the blessed feet of our Guru which are the embodiment of all well-being, with repeated salutations we invite the whole world to participate in drinking the nectar.

"That nectar which has been obtained by churning the infinite ocean of the Vedas, into which Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and the other gods have poured their strength, which is charged with the life-essence of the Avataras---Gods incarnate on earth---Shri Ramakrishna holds that nectar in his person, in its fullest measure!" [September 25, 1894]

I am very sorry to hear of Mazoomdar's doings. One always behaves thus in trying to push oneself before all others. I am not much to blame. Mazoomdar came here ten years ago, and got much reputation. and honour; now I am in flying colours. Such is the will of the Guru, what shall I do?. . . It is the will of the Lord that people of this land have their power of introspection roused, and does it lie in anybody to check His progress? I want no name-I want to be a voice without a form. I do not require anybody to defend me-who am I to check or to help the course of His march? And who are others also?. . . I am an instrument and He is the operator. Through this instrument He is rousing the religious instinct in thousands of hearts in this far-off country. Thousands of men and women here love and revere me. . . . "He makes the dumb eloquent and makes the lame cross mountains.'.' . . . I am a voice without a form. . . .

A movement which half a dozen penniless boys set on foot and which now bids fair to progress in such an accelerated motion-is it a humbug or the Lord's will? [(Beginning of?) 1894]

We have just noticed the Swami calling the work of himself' and his brothers a "movement". That he regarded this move¬ment as dedicated to the service of Shri Ramakrishna, and that he held up Ramakrishna before his brother-servants as a divine manifestation, incarnate for the good of all mankind, were in no way incompatible with his unflinching adherence to Advaita as the movement's philosophy, inspiration, and fulfilment. It was, indeed, Shri Ramakrishna himself who had taught him to experience the ultimate truth of Advaita while being at the same time a lover of God. Further, although the Swami insisted on devotion to the guru as the movements source of spiritual power, he was anxious that its members should not fall into sectarian narrowness, which was directly opposed to the pur¬pose for which the Master came. He therefore wanted a broad Advaitic catholicity to permeate their understanding and preaching of Shri Ramakrishna.

I tell you brother, let everything go on as it is, only take care that no form becomes necessary-unity in variety-see that universality be not hampered in the least. Everything must be sacrificed, if necessary, for that one sentiment, universality. Whether I live or die, whether I go back to India or not, remember this specially, that universality¬ perfect acceptance, not tolerance only-we preach and perform. Take care how you trample on the least rights of others. Many a huge ship has foundered in that whirlpool. Remember, perfect devotion minus its bigotry-this is what we have got to show. Through His grace everything will go all right.

And in the summer of the same year:_x000d_ Great sages come with special messages for the world, and not for name but their followers throw their teachings overboard and fight mer their names--this is verily the history of the world. I do not take into any consideration whether people accept his [Shri Rama¬krishna's] 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.

And a little later, on September 25:_x000d_ We must mix with all, and alienate none. All the powers of good against all the powers of evil-this is what we want. Do not insist upon everybody's believing in our Guru. . . . Wherever you go, you must start a permanent preaching centre. Then only will people begin to change. . . . Always remember that Shri Ramakrishna came for the good of the world-not for name or fame. Spread only what he came to teach. Never mind his name-it will spread of itself. Directly you insist on everybody's accepting your Guru, you will be creating a sect, and everything will fall to the ground-so beware! Have a kind word for all-it spoils work to show temper. Let people say whatever they like, stick to your own convictions, and rest assured, the world will be at your feet. They say, "Have faith in this fellow or that fellow", but I say, "Have faith in yourself first", that's the way.

My dear brother, that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was God incarnate, I have not the least doubt; but then you must let people find out for themselves what he used to teach you cannot trust these things upon them this is my only objection.

Let people speak out their own opinions, why should we object? Without studying Ramakrishna Paramahamsa first, one can never understand the real import of the Vedas, the Vedanta, of the Bhagavata and the other Puranas. His life is a searchlight of infinite power thrown upon the whole mass of Indian religious thought. He was the living commentary to the Vedas and to their aim. He had lived in one life the whole cycle of the national religious existence in India.

Whether Bhagavan Shri Krishna was born at all we are not sure; and Avataras like Buddha and Chaitanya are monotonous; Rama¬krishna Paramahamsa is the latest and the most perfect the concentrated embodiment of knowledge, love, renunciation, catholicity, and the desire to serve mankind.. So where is anyone to compare with him? He must have been born in vain who cannot appreciate him! My supreme good fortune is that I am his servant through life after life. A single word of his is to me far weightier than the Vedas and the Vedanta. . . . Oh, I am the servant of the servants of his servants. But narrow bigotry militates against his principles, and this makes me cross. Rather let his name be drowned in oblivion, and his teachings bear fruit instead! Why, was he a slave to fame? Certain fishermen and illiterate people called Jesus Christ a God, but the literate people killed him. Buddha was honoured in his lifetime by a number of merchants and cowherds. But Ramakrishna has been worshipped in his lifetime towards the end of this nineteenth century by the demons and giants of the university as God incarnate. . . . Only a few things have been jotted down in the books about them (Krishna, Buddha, Christ, etc.). "One must be a wonderful housekeeper with whom we have never yet lived!" so the Bengali proverb goes. But here is a man in whose company we have been day and night and yet consider him to be a far greater personality than any of them. Can you understand this phenomenon?

Whether or not the reader agrees with the Swami's estimate of his Master vis-a-vis other world teachers, we have here his, uninhibited view of Shri Ramakrishna, expressed in the candid language of his heart and sanctioned by his thoroughly rational intellect. It was indeed Swami Vivekananda who revealed even to his brother-disciples the true proportions of Shri Ramakrishna's greatness; but at the same time he repeatedly and emphatically warned them against sliding into the narrow groove of sectarianism and barren ritualism.

The Swami's concept of worship had little to do with ceremonial piety, but was directed towards the spiritual transformation of the worshipper. It harmonized with the new spirit of monasticism that he was inculcating in his brother-disciples-a monasticism in which the service of man "knowing him as the manifestation of God" was a potent form of spiritual discipline, as meditation and other devotional practices also were. He was fully aware of the important role this new monasticism was to play in the regeneration of India. In fact his "plan" hinged upon it. In his letters, therefore, he wrote of the reorientation of the age old institution of monasticism that would be needed. He wanted the followers of Shri Ramakrishna to cultivate a new kind of spirituality, at once vigorous and transcendental.

You have renounced everything. Come ! Now is the turn for you to banish the desire for peace, and that for Mukti [liberation] too! Don't worry in the least; heaven or hell, or Bhakti [devotion] or Mukti-don't care for anything, but go, my boy, and spread the name of the Lord from door to door! It is only by doing good to others that one attains to one's own good, and it is by leading others to Bhakti and Mukti that one attains them oneself. Take that up, forget your own self for it, be mad over the idea. As Shri Ramakrishna used to love you, as I love you come, love the world like that. Bring all together. . . .

Remember these few points:_x000d_ 1. We are sannyasins, who have given up everything-Bhakti, and Mukti, and enjoyment, and all._x000d_ 2. To do the highest .good to the world, everyone down to the lowest-this is our vow. Welcome Mukti or hell, whichever comes of it._x000d_ 3: Ramakrishna Paramahamsa came for the good of the world. Call him a man, or God, or an incarnation, just as you please. Accept him each in your own light._x000d_ 4. He who will bow before him will be converted into purest gold that very moment. Go with this message from door to door, if you can, my boy, and all your disquietude will be at an end. Never fear _x000d_ -where's the room for Fear?-Caring for nothing whatsoever is a part of your life. You have so long spread his name and your character al1 around, well and good. Now spread them in an organized way. The Lord is with you. Take heart!

Whether I live or die, whether I go back to India or not, you go on spreading love, love that knows no bounds....'When death is so certain, it is better to die for a good cause."

In his Western work, at least in its initial stages, the Swami did not stress the organizational aspect of it, the emphasis characterizing the work and the circumstances attending it being what they were. But he was convinced that for the Indian work a strong organizational structure based on spiritual values was important. The Hindu monasticism that he envisioned was to be organized, and this organization was to be founded on utter selflessness and such other spiritual virtues as conduce simultaneously to "the liberation of the spirit and the good of the world". He wanted this organization moreover to spread, widely. In his letters of 1894 to his brother-disciples, he emphasizes again and again the need to imbue the educated youth of the country with the ideal of monasticism.

We must work among the English educated young men. "Through renunciation alone some (rare ones) attained immortality." Renunciation! Renunciation! You must preach this above everything else. There will be no spiritual strength unless one renounces the world.

And in the summer of 1894:_x000d_ What is wanted is a power of organization-do you understand me? . . . Brother Tarak, Sharat, and Hari [Swamis Shivananda, Saradananda and Turiyananda] 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 has great executive ability. . . . 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. . . .

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.

And a little earlier he had written to his brother-disciples: _x000d_ Remember my previous letter-we want both men and women. There is no distinction of sex in the soul. It won't do merely to call Shri Ramakrishna an Incarnation, you must manifest power. Where are Gour-Ma, Yogin-Ma, and Golap-Ma? Tell them to spread these ideas. We want thousands of men and thousands of women who will spread like wild fire from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, from the North Pole to the South Pole-all over the world. It is no use indulging in child's play-neither is there time for it. Let those who have come for child's play be off now, while there is time, or they will surely come to grief. We want an organization. Off with laziness. Spread! Spread! Run like fire to all places. Do not depend upon me. Whether I live or die, go on spreading, yourselves.

We have mentioned earlier the Swami's emphasis on making possible the elevation of the women of India. In line with this was the importance he gave to the role of women in his Indian work. His idea was that women's monasticism in modern Hinduism would grow with the Holy Mother as its centre, as men's monasticism was already growing with Shri Rama¬krishna as centre. Among the disciples of the Master, Swami Vivekananda was the first to realize the greatness of the Holy Mother and her importance for the regeneration of India and all mankind. His words in this connection must have come as a revelation even to his brother-disciples, who were themselves by no means deficient in comprehension of her greatness.

The Swami repeatedly urged his brother-disciples to purchase a suitable plot of land, promising to send money for it, so that the Holy Mother could have a place of her own. That he gave the establishment of a home for the Holy Mother the highest priority on his schedule of work, revealed how deeply concerned he was about the cause of womanhood in India and, for that matter, in the world at large. He was convinced that women had a vital part to play in the mission of Shri Ramakrishna.

You have not yet understood the wonderful significance of Mother's life- none of you. But gradually you will know, Without Shakti [Power] 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 sense-gratification. 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. Here we must first build a Math for Mother. First Mother and Mother's daughters, then Father and Father's sons -can you understand this?. . . To me, Mother's grace is a hundred thousand times more valuable than Father's. Mother's grace, Mother's blessings are all paramount to me. . . . Please pardon me. I am a little bigoted there, as regards Mother. If but Mother orders, her demons can work anything. Brother, before proceeding to America I wrote to Mother to bless me. Her blessings came, and at one bound I cleared the ocean. There, you see. In this terrible winter I am lecturing from place to place and fighting against odds, so that funds may be collected for Mother's Math. . . . I shall be relieved when you will have purchased a plot of land and established there the living Durga, the Mother. . . . As soon as you can do that, I shall heave a sigh of relief after sending the money.

As to his conception of organization, the Swami wrote to his brothers: "The term organization means division of labour. Each does his own part, and the parts taken together express an ideal of harmony." Besides stating the theory of organization, he pointed out the principles governing this division of labour and explained where a spiritual organization's source of strength lay. It lay not in numbers or temporal power, but in the living, dynamic current of spirituality:

Without an unbroken chain of discipleship-Guruparampara¬ nothing can be done. . . . Nothing, I say, can be done without the chain of discipleship, that is, the power that is transmitted from the Guru to the disciple, and from him to his disciple, and so on._x000d_ He impressed on his brother-disciples the knowledge that they were instruments in the Lord's work and as such were irresistible-provided there was perfect unity among them and obedience to leadership.

May you have exceeding love for one another among yourselves, and it would be enough to have an attitude of indifference towards public criticisms. . . . So long as there is no feeling of disunion amongst you, through the grace of the Lord, I assure you, there is no danger for you, . . . "be it in battle, in the forest, or on the top of mountains". . . . All noble undertakings are fraught with obstacles." It is quite in the nature of things. . . . So long as you gird up your loins and rally behind me, there is no Fear even if the whole world combines against us.

That jealousy, that absence of conjoint action is the very nature of enslaved nations. But we must try to shake it off. . . ._x000d_ At any cost, any price, any sacrifice, we must never allow that to creep in among ourselves. Whether we be ten or two, do not care, but those few must be perfect characters.

And again on October 22, 1894:_x000d_ From all of you I want this that you must discard for ever self aggrandizement, faction-mongering, and jealousy. You must be all. forbearing, like Mother Earth._x000d_ And he warned the brothers that sannyasis should beware of pride.

In his letter addressed to Swami Ramakrishnananda he had written:_x000d_ A besetting sin with sannyasis is the taking pride in their monastic order. That may have its utility during the first stages, but when they are full-grown, they need it no more. One must make no distinction between householders and sannyasis-then only one is a true sannyasi. . . ._x000d_ The Swami exhorted his brother-disciples to be perfect in every respect. For strong souls he used strong language.

A little later in 1894 he wrote:_x000d_ There is no hope for our nation. Not one original idea crosses anyone's brains, all fighting over the same old, threadbare rug-that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was such and such-and cock-and-bull stories-stories having neither head nor tail. My God! Won't you do something to show that you are in any way removed from the common run of men!-Only indulging in madness! . . . Today you have your bell, tomorrow you add a horn, and follow suit with a chowry the day after; or you introduce a cot today, and tomorrow you have its legs silver-mounted, and people help themselves to rice-porridge, and you spin out two thousand cock-and-bull stories-in short, nothing but external ceremonials. This is called in English imbecility. Those into whose heads nothing but that sort of silliness enters are called imbecile. Those whose heads have a tendency to be troubled day and night over such questions as whether the bell should ring on the right or on the left, whether the sandal-paste mark should be put on the head or anywhere else, whether the light should be waved twice or four times-simply deserve the name of wretches, and it is owing to that sort of notion that we are the outcasts of Fortune, kicked and spurned at, while the people of the West are masters of the whole world. . . . There is an ocean of difference between idleness and renunciation.

Notwithstanding this kind of remorseless but constructive criticism, of which the Swami was a past master, no one knew better than he the spiritual worth of his brother-disciples. It was his profound love for them and his conviction that they were to be instruments for the fulfilment of Shri Ramakrishna's mission that made him speak so mercilessly. He knew for sure, as he himself wrote, that they would catch his fire:

"Arise! Awake!" Great Lord! He is at our back. I cannot write any more 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 wilt 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?. . .

The Swami's words proved true. The brother-disciples who read his letters did imbibe his spirit. The successful meeting organized by them in Calcutta on September 5, 1894, was the first evidence he received that they had begun to imbibe his spirit, that the dynamic spirit that he had been striving to arouse in them had been aroused. Born leader that he was, he sought at once to harness the awakened enthusiasm of his brothers to the fulfilment of the Master's mission.

Now you have come to know your own powers. Strike [while the iron] is hot. Idleness won't do. Throw overboard all idea of jealousy and egotism, once for all. Come on to the practical field with tremendous energy; to work, in the fullness of strength! As to the rest, the Lord will point out the way. The whole world will be deluged by a tidal wave. Work, work, work-let this be your motto. I cannot see anything else. . . . You must work in sympathy with all, then only will it lead to quick results. . . .

Too much of everything is bad. This newspaper booming has given me popularity no doubt, but its effect is more in India than here. . . . Now try to organize yourselves in India on the lines of these meetings. . . ._x000d_ Everything will come all right. Be the servant if you will rule. That is the real secret. Your love will tell even if your words be harsh. Instinctively men feel the love clothed in whatever language.

Meanwhile, the Swami's letters to his Madras disciples and others flowed forth. And even as his brother-disciples imbibed his spirit, so also did his disciples and friends; for to them he wrote with the same fire. His letters had almost the value of his presence, inspiring all who read them to constructive thought and action.

I do not know whether I shall go away this summer or not. Most probably not. In the meantime try to organize and push on our plans. Believe you can do everything. Know that the Lord is with us, and so, onward, brave souls! . . .

Act on the educated young men, bring them together, and organize them. Great things can be done by great sacrifices only. No selfish¬ness no name, no fame, yours or mine, nor my Master's even! Work, work the idea, the plan, my boys, my brave, noble, good souls to the wheel, to the wheel put your shoulders! Stop not to look back for name, or fame, or any such nonsense. Throw self overboard and work. Remember, "The grass when made into a rope by being joined together can even chain a mad elephant." The Lord's blessings on you all! His power be in you all-as I believe it is already. "Wake up, stop not until the goal is reached", say the Vedas. Up, up, the long night is passing, the day is approaching, the wave has risen, nothing will be able to resist its tidal fury. The spirit, my boys, the spirit; the love, my children, the love; the faith, the belief; and fear not! The greatest sin is fear.

The Swami believed that only by awakening the higher self in his direct followers, and through them the higher self in many individuals, could his oppressed nation be stirred; and stirred the nation eventually was. At the stage of which we are speaking this was done by giving great ideas from half way round the world.

Continuing in the same letter, he wrote:_x000d_ My blessings on all. Tell all the noble souls in Madras who have helped our cause that I send them my eternal love and gratitude, but I beg of them not to slacken. Throw the idea broadcast. Do not be proud; do not insist upon anything dogmatic; do not go against anything ours is to put the chemicals together, the Lord knows how and when the crystal will form. Above all, be not inflated with my success or yours. Great works are to be done; what is this small success in comparison with what is to come? Believe, believe, the decree has gone forth, the fiat of the Lord has gone forth-India must rise, the masses and the poor are to be made happy. Rejoice that you are the chosen instruments in His hands. The flood of spirituality hag risen. I see it is rolling over the land resistless, boundless, all-absorbing. Every man to the fore, every good will be added to its forces, every hand will smooth its way, and glory be unto the Lord!

The Swami's approach to age-old problems was refreshingly modern. The way to the goal lay, he knew, through doing rather than through writing and talking; and he urged the same line of action on his brothers and followers, asking them, at the same time, to be content with small beginnings.

The letter continued:_x000d_ I do not require any help. Try to get up a fund, buy some magic lanterns, maps, globes, etc., and some chemicals. Get every evening a crowd of the poor and low, even the Pariahs, and lecture to them about religion first, and then teach them through the magic-lantern and other things, astronomy, geography, etc., in the dialect of the people. Train up a band of fiery young men. Put your fire in them, and gradually increase the organization, letting it widen and widen its circle. Do the best you can, do not wait to cross the river when the water has all run down. Printing magazines, papers, etc., are good no doubt, but actual work, my boys, even if infinitesimal, is better than eternal scribbling and talking. Call a meeting at Bhattacharya's. Get a little money and buy those things I have just now stated, hire a hut, and go to work. Magazines are secondary, but this is primary. You must have a hold on the masses. Do not be afraid of a small beginning, great things come afterwards. Be courageous. Do not try to lead your brethren, but serve them. The brutal mania for leading has sunk many a great ship in the waters of life. Take care especially of that, i.e. be unselfish even unto death, and work. I could not write all I was going to say, but the Lord will give you all understanding, my brave boys. At it, my boys! Glory unto the Lord!

It was this consecrated, selfless, co-operative, organized work under the banner of the Divine that the Swami prescribed for India, rather than uncoordinated free-lancing. His idea was to organize his monastic and lay followers for conjoint work. Through co-ordination of wills, he said, comes "that accumulation of energy and power that is going to make the future India".

"Let me see you make some electric circuits between Calcutta and Madras", Try to expand. Remember the only sign of life is motion and growth. . . . Keep on steadily. So far we have done wonderful things. Onward, brave souls, we will gain! Organize and found societies and go to work, that is the only way.

Since an organization was to be the central force in the Swami's scheme for future work in India, he carefully taught his lay followers as well as his brother-disciples how to build one, stressing the spirit that should guide it and the methods and responsibilities of its leaders.

Now organize a little society. You will have to take charge of the whole movement, not as a leader, but as a servant. Do you know, the least show of leading destroys everything by rousing jealousy?

Accede to everything. Only try to retain all of my friends together. Do you see? And work slowly up. Let G. G. and others, who have no immediate necessity for earning something, do as they are doing, i.e. casting the idea broadcast. G. G. is doing well at Mysore. That is the way. . . .

So the sooner you organize yourselves and you be ready as secretary and treasurer to enter into direct communication with my friends and sympathizers here, the better for you and me. Do that quickly, and write to me. Give the society a non-sectarian name.

You need not send any more newspaper cuttings. I have been deluged with them. Enough of that. Now go to work for the organiza¬tion. I have started one already in New York and the Vice-President _x000d_ will soon write to you. Keep correspondence with them. Soon I hope to get up a few in other places.

The Swami's mention of a direct liaison between his followers in India and those in America seems to indicate that he was thinking of an international organization.

He continued in the same letter: "We must organize our forces not to make a sect -not on religious matters, but on the secular business part of it. A stirring propaganda must be launched out. Put your heads together and organize."

The secret of success of the Westerners is the power of organization and combination. That is only possible with mutual trust and co¬operation and help. Now here is Virchand Gandhi, the Jain, whom you well knew in Bombay. This man never takes anything but pure vegetables even in this terribly cold climate, and tooth and nail tries to defend his countrymen and religion. The people of this country like him very well, but what are they doing who sent him over? They are trying to outcast him. Jealousy is a vice necessarily generated in slaves. Again it is jealousy that holds them down.

Keeping aloof from the community of nations is the only cause for the downfall of India. Since the English came, they have been forcing you back into communion with other nations, and you are visibly rising again. Everyone that comes out of the country confers a benefit on the whole nation; for it is by doing that alone that your horizon will expand. And as women cannot avail themselves of this advantage, they have made almost no progress in India. There is no station of rest; either you progress upwards or you go back and die out. The only sign of life is going outward and forward and expansion. Contrac¬tion is death. Why should you do good to others? Because that is the only condition of life; thereby you expand beyond your little self; you live and grow, All narrowness, all contraction, all selfishness is simply slow suicide, and when a nation commits the fatal mistake of contracting itself and of thus cutting off all expansion and life, it must die. Women similarly must go forward or become idiots and soulless tools in the hands of their tyrannical lords. The children are the result of the combination of the tyrant and the idiot, and they are slaves. And this is the whole history of modern India. Oh, who would break this horrible crystallization of death? Lord help us!

The Swami was himself a powerful agent of God in breaking the "horrible crystallization of death" that had come over India. As early as September 1892 he had written, "So you sec, we must travel, we must go to Foreign parts. We must see how the engine of society works in other countries, and keep tree and open communication with what is going on in the minds of other nations, if we really want to be a nation again." But his mission was not only to gather the riches of technological and sociological knowledge from other nations of the world; it was also to give abundantly of India's vast spiritual treasure. As has been well said, Swami Vivekananda's going forth proved that India was alive not only to survive but also to conquer; and this conquest was not with weapons but with lofty ideas and ideals. Lest any of his countrymen should undervalue the treasures 2hat India already possessed and madly rush after things foreign and exotic, with grievous hurt to themselves, he pointed out in unmistakable terms-even at the risk of being misunderstood-that India had her own strength, had her own lessons to teach.

I have been travelling all over this country all this time and seeing everything. I have come to this conclusion that there is only one country in the world which understands religion-it is India; that with all their faults the Hindus are head and shoulders above all other nations in morality and spirituality; and that with proper care and attempt and struggle of all her disinterested sons, by combining some of the active and heroic elements of the West with calm virtues of the Hindus, there will come a type of men far superior to any that have ever been in this world.

Liberty is the first condition of growth. Your ancestors gave every liberty to the soul, and religion grew. They put the body under every bondage, and society did not grow. The opposite is the case in the West-every liberty to society, none to religion. Now are falling off the shackles from the feet of Eastern society as from those of Western religion.

Each again will have its type; the religious or introspective in India, the scientific or out-seeing in the West. The West wants every bit of spirituality through social improvement. The East wants every bit of social power through spirituality. Thus it was that the modem reformers saw no way to reform but by first crushing out the religion of India. They tried, and they failed. Why? Because few of them ever studied their own religion, and not one ever underwent the training necessary to understand the Mother of all religions. I claim that no destruction of religion is necessary to improve the Hindu society, and that this state of society exists not on account of religion, but because religion has not been applied to society as it should have been. This I am ready to prove from our old books, every word of it. This is what I teach, and this is what we must struggle all our lives to carry out. But it will take time, a long time to study. Have patience and work. "Save yourself by yourself"

It is the Swami who in the present age has most clearly shown the creative role of religion in bringing about the desired evolution of modern civilization, not only in India but in the whole world. This was his most original contribution to modern Indian thought. True, his voice has not yet been fully heard, either in India or abroad; but there are signs that thinkers all over the world are slowly veering round to his views. But even as the Swami was a fervent exponent of the application of essential religion to social problems, he was at the same time a forthright critic of the excessive emphasis laid by Hindu society on certain religious attitudes and traditions. In the postscript to the letter last quoted he wrote:

The present Hindu society is organized only for spiritual men, and hopelessly crushes out everybody else. Why? Where shall they go who want to enjoy the world a little with its frivolities? Just as our religion takes in all, so should our society. This is to be worked out by first understanding the true principles of our religion and then applying them to society. This is the slow but sure work to be done.

This liberal and understanding attitude was that of a man of illumination, of one who had faith in the power of essential religion and in the divine potential within all men.

I believe in God; and I believe in Man. I believe in helping the miserable. I believe in going even to hell to save others. . . ._x000d_ I am a Tyagi [detached] monk. I only want one thing. I do not believe in a God or religion which cannot wipe the widow's tears or bring a piece of bread to the orphan's mouth. However sublime be the theories, however well-spun may be the philosophy-I do not call it religion so long as it is confined to books and dogmas. The eye is in the forehead and not in the back. Move onward and carry into practice that which you are very proud to call your religion, and God bless you!. . ._x000d_ What have I to do with this "ism" or that "ism" ? I am the servant of the Lord. . , ._x000d_ Love never fails, my son; today or tomorrow or ages after, truth will conquer. Love shall win the victory. Do you love your fellow¬men? Where should you go to seek for God-are not all the poor, the miserable, the weak, gods? Why not worship them first? Why go to dig a well on the shores of the Ganga? Believe in the omnipotent power of love. Who cares for these tinsel puffs of name? I never keep watch of what the newspapers are saying: Have you love?-You are omnipotent. Are you perfectly unselfish? If so,, you are irresistible. It is character that pays everywhere. It is the Lord who protects His children in the depths of the sea. Your country requires heroes; be heroes! God bless you!

And these remedies were not such as would themselves create other problems in the Future, as measures based on partial views of reality and lacking in universal love tend to do._x000d_ "The only way", he wrote, "is love and sympathy. The only worship is love." The Swami's work sprang from love. Love was its method. And its end was to bring men in all parts of the world to greater love.