In Bombay the Swami met Ramdas Chhabildas, to whom he was introduced by the brother of Haridas Chatterji of Khandwa. This gentleman received him cordially and asked him to be his guest. The Swami agreed. He used to spend most of his time there in further study of the Vedas.

One day the Swami went to see a noted politician of Bombay, who showed him a Calcutta newspaper containing an account of the controversy over the Age of Consent Bill. The Swami hung his head in shame when he read that the bill was opposed by the educated section of the Bengali community, and bitterly criticized the iniquitous practice of early marriage.

From the hitherto unpublished "Memoirs" of Sister Christine (an American disciple of Swamiji) we understand that sometime during his stay at Bombay, the Swami visited Kansai Caves, about twenty miles north of the city, on the island of Salute, which is, as a matter of fact, part of the mainland, but separated by a small stream. The ocean surrounds it on three sides. There are in all 109 caves, which were inhabited by Buddhist monks in the early years of the Buddhist era. It is said that Buddhaghosha lived here with his disciples for some time and later on went to Ceylon and Burma. About Swamiji's visit to these caves Swami Sadananda (Swamiji's first sannyasi disciple) told Sister Christine: "Swamiji in his wanderings in western India before he went to America, found these caves. The place stirred him deeply, for it seems that he had a memory of a previous life in which he lived there. At that time, the place was unknown and forgotten. He hoped that some day he might acquire it and make it one of the centres for the work which he was planning for the Future."_x000d_ Sister Christine's Memoirs continue: "While he [Swami Vivekananda] was at Thousand Islands [in New York State, U.S.A.] he made plans for the future, not only for his disciples in India and work there, but for those of his followers in America who were hoping sometime to go to India. At that time we thought these plans only day-dreams. One day he said: `We shall have a beautiful place in India on an island with ocean on three sides. There will be small caves which will accommodate two each, and between each cave there will be a pool of water for bathing, and pipes carrying drinking water will run up to each one. There will be a great hall with carved pillars for the Assembly Hall, and a more elaborate Chaitya Hall for worship. Oh! It will be luxury.' " According to Sister Christine, the Swami said this with reference to the Kanheri Caves.

Bombay,_x000d_ 22nd August, 1892_x000d_ Dear Dewanji Saheb,_x000d_ I am very much gratified on receiving your letter, especially as that is the proof that you have the same kindness towards me.

About the kindness and gentlemanliness of your friend Mr. Bederkar of Indore and of the Dakshinis in general, the less said the better; but of course there are Dakshinis and Dakshinis, and I would only quote to you what Shankar Pandurang wrote me at Mahabaleshwar on my informing him that I had found shelter with the Limdi Thakore:_x000d_ "I am so glad to learn that you have found Limdi Thakore there, else you would have been in serious troubles, our Maratha people not being so kind as the Gujaratis." So kind? Heaven and hell!

I am very glad that your joint has now been nearly perfectly cured.

Kindly tell your noble brother to excuse my promise-breaking as I have got here some Sanskrit books and help, too, to read, which I do not hope to get elsewhere, and am anxious to finish them.

Yesterday I saw your friend Mr. Manahsukharam who has lodged a Sannyasin friend with him. He is very kind to me and so is his son.

After remaining here for 15 to 20 days I would proceed toward Rameshwaram, and on my return would _x000d_ surely come to you.

The world really is enriched by men, high-souled, noble-minded, and kind, like you; the rest are "only as axes which cut at the tree of youth of their mothers', as the Sanskrit poet puts it._x000d_ It is impossible that I should ever forget your fatherly kindness and care of me, and what else can a poor fakir like me do in return to a mighty minister but pray that the Giver of all gifts may give you all that is desirable on earth and in the end which may He postpone to a day long, long ahead may take you in His shelter of bliss and happiness and purity infinite._x000d_ Yours,_x000d_ Vivekananda

PS. One thing that I am very sorry to notice in these parts is the thorough want of Sanskrit and other learning. The people of this part of the country have for their religion a certain bundle of local superstitions about eating, drinking, and bathing, and that is about the whole of their religion.

Poor fellows! Whatever the rascally and wily priests teach them--all sorts of mummery and tomfoolery as the very gist of the Vedas and Hinduism (mind you, neither these rascals of priests nor their forefathers have so much as seen a volume of the Vedas for the last 400 generations)--they follow and degrade themselves. Lord help them from the Rakshasas in the shape of the Brahmins of the Kaliyuga.

I have sent a Bengali boy to you. Hope he would be treated kindly.

Dear Panditji Maharaj {Pandit Shankarlal of Khetri}, _x000d_ Your letter has reached me duly. I do not know why I should be undeservingly praised. "None is good, save One, that is, God", as the Lord Jesus hath said. The rest are only tools in His hands. "Gloria in Excelsis", "Glory unto God in the highest", and unto men that deserve, but not to such an undeserving one like me. Here "the servant is not worthy of the hire"; and a Fakir, especially, has no right to any praise whatsoever, for would you praise your servant for simply doing his duty?_x000d_ . . . My unbounded gratitude to Pandit Sundarlalji, and to my Professor for this kind remembrance of me._x000d_ Now I will tell you something else. The Hindu mind was ever deductive and never synthetic or inductive. In all our philosophies, we always find hair-splitting arguments, taking for granted some general proposition, but the proposition itself may be as childish as possible. Nobody ever asked or searched the truth of these general propositions. Therefore independent thought we have almost none to speak of, and hence the dearth of those sciences which are the results of observation and generalisation. And why was it thus?--From two causes: The tremendous heat of the climate forcing us to love rest and contemplation better than activity, and the Brahmins as priests never undertaking journeys or voyages to distant lands. There were voyagers and people who travelled far; but they were almost always traders, i.e. people from whom priestcraft and their own sole love for gain had taken away all capacity for intellectual development. So their observations, instead of adding to the store of human knowledge, rather degenerated it; for their observations were bad and their accounts exaggerated and tortured into fantastical shapes, until they passed all recognition._x000d_ So you see, we must travel, we must go to foreign parts. We must see how the engine of society works in other countries, and keep free and open communication with what is going on in the minds of other nations, if we really want to be a nation again. And over and above all, we must cease to tyrannise. 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 prayers by a Padri, 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 man who then dare refuse him a chair and a hearty shake of the 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?_x000d_ Yours,_x000d_ Vivekananda