Although we do not know at present either the native or the nature of this organization, it was very likely formed with a mixed purpose. As early as July 11 Swamiji had written to Alasinga, "When the cold weather comes and people return to their homes, I shall begin lecturing again, and at the same time organise societies.

The purpose of the societies Swamiji had in mind at that time was no doubt as much financial as philosophical and religious, for we find him writing on August 31 to the same disciple: "I have friends here who take care of all my monetary concerns. . . . It will be a wonderful relief to me to get rid of horrid money affairs. 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. The New York society which Swamiji formed in November was no doubt organized partly in pursuance of this plan.

But, as will be seen in a later chapter, toward the end of 1894 he was also becoming keenly aware of America's need for the religion of India; thus the society was undoubtedly concerned also with the religious and philosophical aspects of his work.

If earlier he had sown the seeds of his message broadcast, giving abundantly of his power and knowledge wherever he went, he had done so for one purpose only-the spiritual uplift of mankind. Now, with the same purpose, he wanted to remain in one place, establishing a permanent centre, holding classes, and giving intensive spiritual training to a few earnest disciples so that his work would strike deep roots and continue to grow even after he had gone. But of this intensive work we shall speak later.

If Swamiji's role as teacher in the West had not been decisively clear to him before, it must have become so during the month of December, most of which he spent holding classes in Cambridge.

"Three weeks spent at Greenacre . . . ," a brochure read, "suggested to Mrs. Bull . . . The benefit of lectures combined with classes." Acting on this suggestion, she sent out invitations to "a course of Morning Talks" to be held not at her home, but at the nearby residence of a Mrs. Richards at 181 Brattle Street on "Dec. 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 17, at eleven o'clock, and on Sunday Afternoon, Dec.16, at three o'clock.

The speakers, the program stated, were to be Lady Henry Somerset, Mts. Milward Adams, Mr. Ernest F. Fenollosa, and Swami Vivekananda. With the exception of Mr. Fenollosa, an-or rather the-authority on Oriental literature and art, whose talk was scheduled for Sunday afternoon, each speaker was to give two talks; Thomas Wentworth Higginson was to conduct an informal discussion following the first of Lady Somerset's talks,

and inevitably there was on each occasion to be music. But if music was unavoidable, it was, at least, good. "Each lecture," the program read, "will open and close with a group of songs sung by Emma Thursby. Violoncello: Mr. Wulf Fries." Miss Thursby was one of the greatest vocalists of her day, and Mr. Wulf Fries, being on the same program with her, could not have been less than an excellent cellist. And very likely Mrs. Bull, who according to all accounts was a pianist of professional caliber, accompanied both Miss Thursby and Mr. Fries. Thus the music was such that one might come to hear it for its own sake.

Indeed, one might hear music every day at Mrs. Bull's house during that December.

Nov 26th 1894 _x000d_ My dear:--_x000d_ Bring not only what you want to sing but what you would like to study. I will arrange hours for regular work. You will have a sunny room and piano to yourself besides your bedroom._x000d_ Let me know by what train to expect you on the third. I presume Mr. Kananda will consult you that you may come together. You know you can perfectly well wear the same dress for each lecture. And all the better for a Cambridge audience. Is. Ina [Miss Thursby's younger sister] coming?_x000d_ With love to you both_x000d_ Affectionately ever _x000d_ Sara C. Bull_x000d_ Father is gaining

Since Swamiji was called suddenly to New York, it is not likely that he stopped by in Philadelphia to visit Professor Wright. Nor do we know much: about his activities during November. We can only assume that he spent most of that month in New York City, but whether he lectured there or not, we do not know. Swamiji's plans at this time stem to have been in a state of flux, naturally so, perhaps, as it appears to have been toward the end of 1894 that his mission as a teacher to the West was taking definite shape in his mind and that the road to its accomplishment was opening; everything fell into place. His proposed trip to Europe and thence to India was postponed; if its possibility had once been certain, it was now vague; the engagement he had made while at Greenacre to lecture at the Brooklyn Ethical Association in the fall was now scheduled for the very end of the year; as for the month of December, Mrs. Bull was making plans that were to result in giving him new hope for the success of his "project."

The Swami had by now decided to remain for a while in the West, teaching those who came to him and establishing his work on a firm basis. His one fervent hope was to gain some disciples whose spiritual earnestness and sincerity would form a centre from which his gospel would be disseminated.

As we saw in the preceding chapter, he had for some time wanted to teach "a select, a very select-few", rather than lecture publicly to huge audiences. But the divine Will had been different. He had had to undertake months more of sowing his message broadcast to the American public before he could settle in one place to teach intensively.

To present the ideals of the civilization and the religious consciousness of his own race to the peoples of the West, to enhance the spiritual vision of all with whom he came into contact, to enlighten the Western mind with the know¬ledge of the Advaita Vedanta-these were the ideas which possessed him. "The whole world requires Light", he had written at the end of August to the same disciple: "It is ex¬pectant! India alone has that Light, not in magic mummeries, and charlatanism, but in the teaching of the glories of the spirit of real religion of the highest spiritual truth. That is why the Lord has preserved the race through all its vicissitudes unto the present day. Now the time has come." The spiritual side of his message was constantly in the foreground, and he found that though India might be seriously in need of material aid, the West stood infinitely more in need of spiritual assistance. So he decided that he should give himself to the West as well as to the East-that he should give himself, in fact, to the whole world.

As we have seen before, the Swami returned to New York from Baltimore on November 4, spent most of the month in the city, and while there, organized the nucleus of a Vedanta Society. Its purpose, aside from the immediate one of managing the organizational and financial aspects of his work, was to serve as a centre from which the knowledge of Vedanta would flow outward and into which funds for the educational institutions he wished to start in India might be gathered.

Thus, two or three days before planned, Swamiji's visit to Baltimore and Washington came to an end.

The Swami was scheduled to give a lecture in Baltimore on November 5, and one in Washington on November 6. But neither of these were delivered; for on November 4 he returned unexpectedly to New York.

Chicago_x000d_ 15th November, 1894(3?)_x000d_ Dear Diwanji Saheb {Shri Haridas Viharidas Desai},_x000d_ I here received your kind note. So very kind of you to remember me even here, I have not seen your Narayan Hemchandra. He is not in America, I believe. I have seen many strange sights and grand things. I am glad that there is a good chance of your coming over to Europe. Avail yourself of it by any means. The fact of our isolation from all the other nations of the world is the cause of our degeneration and its only remedy is getting back into the current of the rest of the world. Motion is the sign of life. America is a grand country. It is a paradise of the poor and women. There is almost no poor in the country, and nowhere else in the world women are so free, so educated, so cultured. They are everything in society._x000d_ This is a great lesson. The Sannyasin has not lost a bit of his Sannyasinship, even his mode of living. And in this most hospitable country, every home is open to me. The Lord who guides me in India, would He not guide me here? And He has._x000d_ You may not understand why a Sannyasin should be in America, but it was necessary. Because the only claim you have to be recognised by the world is your religion, and good specimens of our religious men are required to be sent abroad to give other nations an idea that India is not dead._x000d_ Some representative men must come out of India and go to all the nations of the earth to show at least that you are not savages. You may not feel the necessity of it from your Indian home, but, believe me, much depends upon that for your nation. And a Sannyasin who has no idea of doing good to his fellows is a brute, not a Sannyasin._x000d_ I am neither a sightseer nor an idle traveller; but you will see, if you live to see, and bless me all your life._x000d_ Mr. Dvivedi's papers were too big for the Parliament, and they had to be cut short._x000d_ I spoke at the Parliament of Religions, and with what effect I may quote to you from a few newspapers and magazines ready at hand. I need not be self-conceited, but to you in confidence I am bound to say, because of your love, that no Hindu made such an impression in America, and if my coming has done nothing, it has done this that the Americans have come to know that India even today produces men at whose feet even the most civilised nations may learn lessons of religion and morality. Don't you think that is enough to say for the Hindu nation sending over here their Sannyasin? You would hear the details from Virchand Gandhi._x000d_ These I quote from the journals: "But eloquent as were many of the brief speeches, no one expressed as well the spirit of the Parliament (of religions) and its limitations as the Hindu monk. I copy his address in full, but I can only suggest its effect upon the audience; for he is an orator by Divine right, and his strong intelligent face in its picturesque setting of yellow and orange was hardly less interesting than these earnest words and the rich rhythmical utterance he gave them." (Here the speech is quoted in extenso .) New York Critique ._x000d_ "He has preached in clubs and churches until his faith has become familiar to us. . . . His culture, his eloquence, and his fascinating personality have given us a new idea of Hindu civilisation . . . . His fine, intelligent face and his deep musical voice, prepossessing one at once in his favour. . . . He speaks without notes, presenting his facts and his conclusions with the greatest art and the most convincing sincerity, and rising often to rich inspiring eloquence." (ibid.)_x000d_ "Vivekananda is undoubtedly the greatest figure in the Parliament of Religions. After hearing him we feel how foolish it is to send missionaries to this learned nation." Herald (the greatest paper here)._x000d_ I cease from quoting more lest you think me conceited; but this was necessary to you who have become nearly frogs in the well and would not see how the world is going on elsewhere. I do not mean you personally, my noble friend, but our nation in general._x000d_ I am the same here as in India, only here in this highly cultural land there is an appreciation, a sympathy which our ignorant fools never dream of. There our people grudge us monks a crumb of bread, here they are ready to pay one thousand rupees a lecture and remain grateful for the instructions for ever._x000d_ I am appreciated by these strangers more than I was ever in India. I can, if I will, live here all my life in the greatest luxury; but I am a Sannyasin, and "India, with all thy faults I love thee still". So I am coming back after some months, and go on sowing the seeds of religion and progress from city to city as I was doing so long, although amongst a people who know not what appreciation and gratefulness are._x000d_ I am ashamed of my own nation when I compare their beggarly, selfish, unappreciative, ignorant ungratefulness with the help, hospitality, sympathy, and respect which the Americans have shown to me, a representative of a foreign religion. Therefore come out of the country, see others, and compare._x000d_ Now after these quotations, do you think it was worth while to send a Sannyasin to America?_x000d_ Please do not publish it. I hate notoriety in the same manner as I did in India._x000d_ I am doing the Lord's work, and wherever He leads I follow. {Sanskrit} etc.--He who makes the dumb eloquent and the lame cross a mountain, He will help me. I do not care for human help. He is ready to help me in India, in America, on the North Pole, if He thinks fit. If He does not, none else can help me. Glory unto the Lord for ever and ever._x000d_ Yours with blessings,_x000d_ Vivekananda

REPLY TO THE CALCUTTA ADDRESS _x000d_ _x000d_ I am in receipt of the resolutions that were passed at the recent Town Hall meeting in Calcutta and the kind words my fellow-citizens sent over to me._x000d_ Accept, sir, my most heartfelt gratitude for your appreciation of my insignificant services._x000d_ I am thoroughly convinced that no individual or nation can live by holding itself apart from the community of others, and whenever such an attempt has been made under the false ideas of greatness, policy, or holiness--the result has always been disastrous to the secluding one._x000d_ To my mind, the one great cause of the downfall and the degeneration of India was the building of a wall of custom--whose foundation was hatred of others--round the nation, and the real aim of which in ancient times was to prevent the Hindus from coming in contact with the surrounding Buddhistic nations._x000d_ Whatever cloak ancient or modern sophistry may try to throw over it, the inevitable result--the vindication of the moral law, that none can hate others without degenerating himself--is that the race that was foremost amongst the ancient races is now a byword, and a scorn among nations. We are object-lessons of the violation of that law which our ancestors were the first to discover and disseminate._x000d_ Give and take is the law; and if India wants to raise herself once more, it is absolutely necessary that she brings out her treasures and throws them broadcast among the nations of the earth, and in return be ready to receive what others have to give her. Expansion is life, contraction is death. Love is life, and hatred is death. We commenced to die the day we began to hate other races; and nothing can prevent our death unless we come back to expansion, which is life._x000d_ We must mix, therefore, with all the races of the earth. And every Hindu that goes out to travel in foreign parts renders more benefit to his country than hundreds of men who are bundles of superstitions and selfishness, and whose one aim in life seems to be like that of the dog in the manger. The wonderful structures of national life which the Western nations have raised, are supported by the strong pillars of character, and until we can produce numbers of such, it is useless to fret and fume against this or that power._x000d_ Do any deserve liberty who are not ready to give it to others? Let us calmly and in a manly fashion go to work, instead of dissipating our energy in unnecessary frettings and fumings. I, for one, thoroughly believe that no power in the universe can withhold from anyone anything he really deserves. The past was great no doubt, but I sincerely believe that the future will be more glorious still._x000d_ May Shankara keep us steady in purity, patience, and perseverance!

To Mrs. G. W. Hale_x000d_ New York_x000d_ 18 November 1894_x000d_ Dear Mother,_x000d_ I have been very late this time in writing you as Sister Mary has already written to you, no doubt, about me. The clothes have all reached safe, only I will send over some of the summer and other clothes as it will be impossible to carry the burden all along with me._x000d_ The certainty about going to Europe this December has gone; so I am uncertain when I go._x000d_ Sister Mary has improved a great deal from what I saw her last. She lives with a number of fox hunting squires and is quite happy. I hope she will marry one of those fellows with long pockets. I am going again to see her tomorrow at Mrs. Spald¬ing's__I was there last afternoon. I will be in N.Y. this month; then I go to Boston and perhaps will be there all through December. When I was sick in Boston last spring, I went over to Chicago, and not to Detroit as Mrs. Bagley expected. So this time I am going to Detroit first and then to Chicago, if possible. Else I altogether give up the plan of going to the West soon. _x000d_ There is more chance of working my plans out in the East than in the West, as it now appears._x000d_ I have got news of the phonograph__it has reached safe, and the Râjâ wrote to me a very nice letter on that. I have a lot of addresses and other nonsense from India. I have written home to them not to send any more newspapers. My love to the babies at home and I am going to visit the baby abroad._x000d_ Mrs. Guernsey has been at death's door. She is now recov¬ering slowly. I have not seen her yet. She is not strong enough to see anybody. Hope she will soon be strong._x000d_ My love to Father Pope and everyone._x000d_ Your ever affectionate son,_x000d_ Vivekananda

Of some of these matters we learn a little from a letter Swamiji wrote from New York to Mrs. Hale on November 18. It read in full:

The phonograph Swamiji mentions in the above letter had been en route from America to the Maharaja of Khetri for months. It was probably the very latest of models; for in January of 1894 Swamiji had written to his disciples in Madras, "Kindly tell Mr Bhattacharya that I have not forgotten his phonograph, but that Edison has made a recent improvement and until that is out I do not think it advisable to buy one._x000d_ Swamiji—or the Hale sisters, who had attended to the matter -must have bought the new model For the Maharaja. Again and again in his letters, starting with that of August 20 from Annisquam, Swamiji assured Mrs. Hale that the phonograph had not had time to reach Khetri. Finally, however, he himself became anxious; From Baltimore on November 3 he wrote to her:_x000d_ I do not know what to say about this phonograph business. It takes six months to go to India!! And the company can not get an inquiry in another six months!!! American express indeed!! Well however they are bound to make good my money. Mother do not lose the receipt of the express company._x000d_ _x000d_ Then in mid-November news came of the phonograph's safe arrival at its destination. The Maharaja of Khetri was at last in possession of this remarkable hand-turned contraption, which carried with it his Guru's voice on a wax cylinder.*

Then in mid-November news came of the phonograph's safe arrival at its destination. The Maharaja of Khetri was at last in possession of this remarkable hand-turned contraption, which carried with it his Guru's voice on a wax cylinder.*_x000d_ * It was not until 1896 that Edison placed on the market his first spring-motor phonograph; until then, one turned the mechanism by hand. As for the re-corded message that Swamiji sent in 1894 to the Maharaja of Khetri, do we find a reference to it in the following passage from Nivedita’s The Master as I Saw Him (6th edition, page 287)? “Our Master…. Regarded the Order to which he belonged as one whose lot was cast for all time with the cause of Woman and people. This was the cry that rose to his lips instinctively, when he dictated to the phonograph in America, the message that he would send to the Rajah of Khetri.”

TO MY BRAVE BOYS _x000d_ _x000d_ Push on with the organisation. Nothing else is necessary but these--love, sincerity, and patience. What is life but growth, i.e. expansion, i.e. love? Therefore all love is life, it is the only law of life; all selfishness is death, and this is true here or hereafter. It is life to do good, it is death not to do good to others. Ninety per cent of human brutes you see are dead, are ghosts--for none lives, my boys, but he who loves. Feel, my children, feel; feel for the poor, the ignorant, the downtrodden; feel till the heart stops and the brain reels and you think you will go mad--then pour the soul out at the feet of the Lord, and then will come power, help, and indomitable energy. Struggle, struggle, was my motto for the last ten years. Struggle, still say I. When it was all dark, I used to say, struggle; when light is breaking in, I still say, struggle. Be not afraid, my children. Look not up in that attitude of fear towards that infinite starry vault as if it would crush you. Wait! In a few hours more, the whole of it will be under your feet. Wait, money does not pay, nor name; fame does not pay, nor learning. It is love that pays; it is character that cleaves its way through adamantine walls of difficulties._x000d_ Now the question before us is this. There cannot be any growth without liberty. Our ancestors freed religious thought, and we have a wonderful religion. But they put a heavy chain on the feet of society, and our society is, in a word, horrid, diabolical. In the West, society always had freedom, and look at them. On the other hand, look at their religion._x000d_ Liberty is the first condition of growth. Just as man must have liberty to think and speak, so he must have liberty in food, dress, and marriage, and in every other thing, so long as he does not injure others._x000d_ We talk foolishly against material civilisation. The grapes are sour. Even taking all that foolishness for granted, in all India there are, say, a hundred thousand really spiritual men and women. Now, for the spiritualisation of these, must three hundred millions be sunk in savagery and starvation? Why should any starve? How was it possible for the Hindus to have been conquered by the Mohammedans? It was due to the Hindus' ignorance of material civilisation. Even the Mohammedans taught them to wear tailor-made clothes. Would the Hindus had learnt from the Mohammedans how to eat in a cleanly way without mixing their food with the dust of the streets! Material civilisation, nay, even luxury, is necessary to create work for the poor. Bread! Bread! I do not believe in a God, who cannot give me bread here, giving me eternal bliss in heaven! Pooh! India is to be raised, the poor are to be fed, education is to be spread, and the evil of priestcraft is to be removed. No priestcraft, no social tyranny! More bread, more opportunity for everybody! Our young fools organise meetings to get more power from the English. They only laugh. None deserves liberty who is not ready to give liberty. Suppose the English give over to you all the power. Why, the powers that be then, will hold the people down, and let them not have it. Slaves want power to make slaves._x000d_ Now, this is to be brought about slowly, and by only insisting on our religion and giving liberty to society. Root up priestcraft from the old religion, and you get the best religion in the world. Do you understand me? Can you make a European society with India's religion? I believe it is possible, and must be. _x000d_ The grand plan is to start a colony in Central India, where you can follow your own ideas independently, and then a little leaven will leaven all. In the meanwhile form a Central Association and go on branching off all over India. Start only on religious grounds now, and do not preach any violent social reform at present; only do not countenance foolish superstitions. Try to revive society on the old grounds of universal salvation and equality as laid down by the old Masters, such as Shankaracharya, Ramanuja, and Chaitanya._x000d_ Have fire and spread all over. Work, work. Be the servant while leading. Be unselfish, and never listen to one friend in private accusing another. Have infinite patience, and success is yours._x000d_ Now take care of this: Do not try to "boss" others, as the Yankees say. Because I always direct my letters to you, you need not try to show your consequence over my other friends. I know you never can be such a fool, but still I think it is my duty to warn you. This is what kills all organisations. Work, work, for, to work only for the good of others is life._x000d_ I want that there should be no hypocrisy, no Jesuitism, no roguery. I have depended always on the Lord, always on Truth broad as the light of day. Let me not die with stains on my conscience for having played Jesuitism to get up name or fame, or even to do good. There should not be a breath of immorality, nor a stain of policy which is bad._x000d_ No shilly-shally, no esoteric blackguardism, no secret humbug, nothing should be done in a corner. No special favouritism of the Master, no Master at that, even. Onward, my brave boys--money or no money--men or no men! Have you love? Have you God? Onward and forward to the breach, you are irresistible._x000d_ How absurd! The Theosophical magazines are saying that they, the Theosophists, prepared the way to my success! Indeed! Pure nonsense! Theosophists prepared the way! Take care! Beware of everything that is untrue; stick to truth and we shall succeed, maybe slowly, but surely. Work on as if I never existed. Work as if on each of you depended the whole work. Fifty centuries are looking on you, the future of India depends on you. Work on. I do not know when I shall be able to come. This is a great field for work. They can at best praise in India, but they will not give a cent for anything; and where shall they get it, beggars themselves? Then, they have lost the faculty of doing public good for the last two thousand years or more. They are just learning the ideas of nation, public, etc. So I need not blame them._x000d_ Blessings to you all!

G. G. Narasimhacharya, of whom Swamiji once wrote, "G. G.'s nature is of the emotional type," contributed the first section._x000d_ Beloved Swamiji,_x000d_ Your last letter from Washington to hand. Your Balti¬more tour we hope will be more effective to the satisfaction of Rev Mr Vrooman. Some of the hostels might have been a little cold at the beginning but we hope that it is all for good; but we believe Baltimore will appreciate you better.

Your last letter seemed to us not to have been written in your usual mood. There is more of exhaustion visible in it. So far as we are concerned we do not very much complain about your long stay in America for we sincerely feel that that land has afforded you a large and suitable field for the message of the Lord. It was there that all the priests of different religions heard first the message of the Lord, it was there the message was appreciated and reverenced.

You teach us to depend upon nobody, to have faith in ourselves, but it does not prohibit our loving you who first taught us the potency of love, by loving us with the true spiritual love, and thus widening our mind. Nothing can be harsh from you, nor anything too much from you. Hitherto the only bond that knit a few of us together was that of the material gravitation, of the flesh, but now we feel the existence of another elastic chord which is capable of binding together the whole universe within its sweet and exhilarating grip and which is only hidden for all external appearance. To some of us at least, it is Vivekananda. You do not care for anything of the world. You _x000d_ # _x000d_ are now in America, you know the Americans and you love them, but we are still of the world, we know not anything of the outside world and so we might in our ova-anxiety for you write or do something nonsensical; but the only way in which we console ourselves is by thinking as Kidi would put it, "Whatever is, is right"_x000d_ In spite of all our efforts and in spite of all that we imagine we can [do,] we are at times led to feel that we are the blind in a forest, an empty vessel in a stormy sea, a kite without the flying string. And so we appeal to you mw and then. No! We can not go anywhere else even though you spurn us away-We cannot but stick to you like bur. Do you not love us-Are we not still ignorant children, in need of a guide? How can we rest till we see the Lord? I am afraid I am growing stupid and trouble¬some.

I already alluded in our last letters to you that every¬thing that you do there rebounds to India with a greater force. Everybody here now feels Religion in the air. Some of the missionaries here the friends of the degraded Heathen just now seem to have risen from their dream, and feel the atmosphere insalubrious and after wisely tracing everything home to you, have begun to hurl their lances at you from here across the seas. Alasinga sent you by the lest a review of an article by a missionary one Hudson in the Sian College magazine. The same votary of Christ has launched another letter in the Calcutta "Statesman ", which purports to say that the appreciation of Vivek-ananda by the Americans was chiefly due to his flowing robe and orange turban. The Editor of the "Madras Times," a European, has reviewed it in an editorial which is herewith sent._x000d_ The sashtanga pranamas of all our Madras friends to Swamiji._x000d_ Very affectionately ever Swamiji _x000d_ G. G. Narasimhacharya

Alasinga the second:_x000d_ Dear Swamiji,_x000d_ Being too deeply immersed in college work I allowed myself the privilege of not writing my lengthy letter this week for which I have no doubt you will excuse roe as it has been much better done this week by G: G. However much we may strive to believe that in the present Religious Revival we have had a hand we find that the conviction won't grow in us. We have done absolutely nothing. The credit is all due to the spiritual fire that is within you. ¬You want us to move on. Much as we feel for the very ex¬haustive work you have been doing we feel we are helpless to do anything to relieve you even for a time. Your return to India will serve a double advantage. It will perhaps enable you to take rest as well as continue your work in your mother-country. I send you herewith a leader that appeared in a European Daily here reviewing a mission-ary's criticism on your exposition of Hinduism referred to by G. G. Please don't fail to inform us before you leave America for England, and give directions to our letters being directed to you in England. Time forbids me from writing more. Dr., Kidi and all other friends send their pranams to you._x000d_ Very affly yours _x000d_ M C Alasinga_x000d_ _x000d_ I am sorry to inform you that there is a rumour here that Bhattacharji [Mr. Manmatha Bhattacharya, to whom Swamiji had written from Annisquam] has been trans¬ferred to Calcutta. The gap in Madras society cannot at all be filled up. Perhaps he has done his work in Madras¬ that of introducing you to Madras._x000d_ MCA

Accept my adoration of your love._x000d_ Kidi

U.S.A._x000d_ 30th November, 1894_x000d_ Dear Alasinga,_x000d_ I am glad to learn that the phonograph and the letter have reached you safely. You need not send any more newspaper cuttings. I have been deluged with them. Enough of that. Now go to work for the organisation. I have started one already in New York and the Vice-President will soon write to you. Keep correspondence with them. Soon I hope to get up a few in other places. We must organise 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 organise._x000d_ What nonsense about the miracle of Ramakrishna! . . . Miracles I do not know nor understand. Had Ramakrishna nothing to do in the world but turning wine into the Gupta's medicine? Lord save me from such Calcutta people! What materials to work with! If they can write a real life of Shri Ramakrishna with the idea of showing what he came to do and teach, let them do it, otherwise let them not distort his life and sayings. These people want to know God who see in Shri Ramakrishna nothing but jugglery! . . . Now let Kidi translate his love, his knowledge, his teachings, his eclecticism, etc. This is the theme. The life of Shri Ramakrishna was an extraordinary searchlight under whose illumination one is able to really understand the whole scope of Hindu religion. He was the object-lesson of all the theoretical knowledge given in the Shastras (scriptures). He showed by his life what the Rishis and Avataras really wanted to teach. The books were theories, he was the realisation. This man had in fifty-one years lived the five thousand years of national spiritual life and so raised himself to be an object-lesson for future generations. The Vedas can only be explained and the Shastras reconciled by his theory of Avastha or stages--that we must not only tolerate others, but positively embrace them, and that truth is the basis of all religions. Now on these lines a most impressive and beautiful life can be written. Well, everything in good time. Avoid all irregular indecent expressions about sex etc. . . ., because other nations think it the height of indecency to mention such things, and his life in English is going to be read by the whole world. I read a Bengali life sent over. It is full of such words. . . . So take care, carefully avoid such words and expressions. The Calcutta friends have not a cent worth of ability; but they have their assertions of individuality. They are too high to listen to advice. I do not know what to do with these wonderful gentlemen. I have not got much hope in that quarter. His will be done. I am simply ashamed of the Bengali book. The writer perhaps thought he was a frank recorder of truth and keeping the very language of Paramahamsa. But he does not remember that Ramakrishna would never use that language before ladies. And this man expects his work to be read by men and women alike! Lord, save me from fools! They, again, have their own freaks; they all knew him! Bosh and rot. . . . Beggars taking upon themselves the air of kings! Fools thinking they are all wise! Puny slaves thinking that they are masters! That is their condition. I do not know what to do. Lord save me. I have all hope in Madras. Push on with your work; do not be governed by the Calcutta people. Keep them in good humour in the hope that some one of them may turn good. But push on with your work independently. "Many come to sit at dinner when it is cooked." Take care and work on._x000d_ Yours ever with blessings,_x000d_ Vivekananda

On November 30 he wrote to Alasinga, "I have started [an organisation] already in New York and the Vice President will soon write to you. Keep cor¬respondence with them. Soon I hope to get up a few in other. places.

U.S.A._x000d_ 30th November, 1894_x000d_ Dear Kidi,_x000d_ . . . As to the wonderful stories published about Shri Ramakrishna, I advise you to keep clear of them and the fools who write them. They are true, but the fools will make a mess of the whole thing, I am sure. He had a whole world of knowledge to teach, why insist upon unnecessary things as miracles really are! They do not prove anything. Matter does not prove Spirit. What_x000d_ connection is there between the existence of God, Soul, or immortality, and the working of miracles? . . . Preach Shri Ramakrishna. Pass the Cup that has satisfied your thirst. . . . Preach Bhakti. Do not disturb your head with metaphysical nonsense, and do not disturb others by your bigotry. . . ._x000d_ Yours ever with blessings,_x000d_ Vivekananda

U.S.A._x000d_ 30th November, 1894_x000d_ Dear and Beloved {Dr. Nanjunda Rao},_x000d_ Your beautiful letter just came to hand. I am so glad that you have come to know Shri Ramakrishna. I am very glad at the strength of your Vairagya. It is the one primary_x000d_ necessity in reaching God. I had always great hopes for Madras, and still I have the firm belief that from Madras will come the spiritual wave that will deluge India. I can only say Godspeed to your good intentions; but here, my son, are the difficulties. In the first place, no man ought to take a hasty step. In the second place, you must have some respect for the feelings of your mother and wife. True, you may say that we, the disciples of Ramakrishna, had not always shown great deference to the opinions of our parents. I know, and know for sure, that great things are done only by great sacrifices. I know for certain that India requires the sacrifice of her highest and best, and I sincerely hope that it will be your good fortune to be one of them._x000d_ Throughout the history of the world you find great men make great sacrifices and the mass of mankind enjoy the benefit. If you want to give up everything for your own salvation, it is nothing. Do you want to forgo even your own salvation for the good of the world? You are God, think of that. My advice to you is to live the life of a Brahmacharin, i.e. giving up all sexual enjoyment for a certain time live in the house of your father; this the "Kutichaka" stage. Try to bring your wife to consent to your great sacrifice for the good of the world. And if you have burning faith and all-conquering love and almighty purity, I do not doubt that you will shortly succeed. Give yourself body and soul to the work of spreading the teachings of Shri Ramakrishna, for work (Karma) is the first stage. Study Sanskrit diligently as well as practise devotion. For you are to be a great teacher of mankind, and my Guru Maharaja used to say, "A penknife is sufficient to commit suicide with, but to kill others one requires guns and swords." And in the fullness of time it will be given unto you when to go forth out of the world and preach His sacred name. Your determination is holy and good. Godspeed to you, but do not take any hasty step. First purify yourself by work and devotion. India has suffered long, the Religion Eternal has suffered long. But the Lord is merciful. Once more He has come to help His children, once more the opportunity is given to rise to fallen India. India can only rise by sitting at the feet of Shri Ramakrishna. His life and his teachings are to be spread far and wide, are to be made to penetrate every pore of Hindu society. Who will do it? Who are to take up the flag of Ramakrishna and march for the salvation of the world? Who are to stem the tide of degeneration at the sacrifice of name and fame, wealth and enjoyment--nay of every hope of this or other worlds? A few young men have jumped in the breach, have sacrificed themselves. They are a few; we want a few thousands of such as they, and they will come. I am glad that our Lord has put it in your mind to be one of them. Glory unto him on whom falls the Lord's choice. Your determination is good, your hopes are high, your aim is the noblest in the world--to bring millions sunk in darkness to the light of the Lord._x000d_ But, my son, here are the drawbacks. Nothing shall be done in haste. Purity, patience, and perseverance are the three essentials to success and, above all, love . All time is yours, there is no indecent haste. Everything will come right if you are pure and sincere. We want hundreds like you bursting upon society and bringing new life and vigour of the Spirit wherever they go. Godspeed to you._x000d_ Yours with all blessings,_x000d_ Vivekananda

Cambridge,_x000d_ December 1894_x000d_ Dear Sister {Mary Hale},_x000d_ I received your letter just now. If it is not against the rules of your society, why do you not come to see Mrs. Ole Bull, Miss Farmer, and Mrs. Adams the physical culturist from Chicago?_x000d_ Any day you will find them there._x000d_ Yours ever affectionately,_x000d_ Vivekananda

541 Dearborn Avenue,_x000d_ Chicago, 1894_x000d_ Dear Alasinga,_x000d_ Your letter just to hand. . . . I was mistaken in asking you to publish the scraps I sent you. It was one of my awful mistakes. It shows a moment's weakness. Money can be raised in this country by lecturing for two or three years. But I have tried a little, and although there is much public appreciation of my work, it is thoroughly uncongenial and demoralising to me. . . ._x000d_ I have read what you say about the Indian papers and their criticisms, which are natural. Jealousy is the central vice of every enslaved race. And it is jealousy and want of combination which cause and perpetuate slavery. You cannot feel the truth of this remark until you come out of India. The secret of Westerners' success is this power of combination, the basis of which is mutual trust and appreciation. The weaker and more cowardly a nation is, so much the more is this sin visible. . . . But, my son, you ought not to expect anything from a slavish race. The case is almost desperate no doubt, but let me put the case before you all. Can you put life into this dead mass--dead to almost all moral aspiration, dead to all future possibilities--and always ready to spring upon those that would try to do good to them? Can you take the position of a physician who tries to pour medicine down the throat of a kicking and refractory child? . . . An American or a European always supports his countrymen in a foreign country. . . . Let me remind you again, "Thou hast the right to work but not to the fruits thereof." Stand firm like a rock. Truth always triumphs. Let the children of Shri Ramakrishna be true to themselves and everything will be all right. We may not live to see the outcome, but as sure as we live, it will come sooner or later. What India wants is a new electric fire to stir up a fresh vigour in the national veins. This was ever, and always will be, slow work. Be content to work, and, above all, be true to yourself. Be pure, staunch, and sincere to the very backbone, and everything will be all right. If you have marked anything in the disciples of Shri Ramakrishna, it is this--they are sincere to the backbone. My task will be done, and I shall be quite content to die, if I can bring up and launch one hundred such men over India. He, the Lord, knows best. Let ignorant men talk nonsense. We neither seek aid nor avoid it--we are the servants of the Most High. The petty attempts of small men should be beneath our notice. Onward! Upon ages of struggle a character is built. Be not discouraged. One word of truth can never be lost; for ages it may be hidden under rubbish, but it will show itself sooner or later. Truth is indestructible, virtue is indestructible, purity is indestructible. Give me a genuine man; I do not want masses of converts. My son, hold fast! Do not care for anybody to help you. Is not the Lord infinitely greater than all human help? Be holy--trust in the Lord, depend on Him always, and you are on the right track; nothing can prevail against you. . . ._x000d_ Let us pray, "Lead, Kindly Light"--a beam will come through the dark, and a hand will be stretched forth to lead us. I always pray for you: you must pray for me. Let each one of us pray day and night for the down-trodden millions in India who are held fast by poverty, priestcraft, and tyranny--pray day and night for them. I care more to preach religion to them than to the high and the rich. I am no metaphysician, no philosopher, nay, no saint. But I am poor, I love the poor. I see what they call the poor of this country, and how many there are who feel for them! What an immense difference in India! Who feels there for the two hundred millions of men and women sunken for ever in poverty and ignorance? Where is the way out? Who feels for them? They cannot find light or education. Who will bring the light to them--who will travel from door to door bringing education to them? Let these people be your God--think of them, work for them, pray for them incessantly--the Lord will show you the way. Him I call a Mahatman (great soul) whose heart bleeds for the poor, otherwise he is a Duratman (wicked soul). Let us unite our wills in continued prayer for their good. We may die unknown, unpitied, unbewailed, without accomplishing anything--but not one thought will be lost. It will take effect, sooner or later. My heart is too full to express my feeling; you know it, you can imagine it. So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them! I call those men who strut about in their finery, having got all their money by grinding the poor, wretches, so long as they do not do anything for those two hundred millions who are now no better than hungry savages! We are poor, my brothers, we are nobodies, but such have been always the instruments of the Most High. The Lord bless you all._x000d_ With all love,_x000d_ Vivekananda

U.S.A._x000d_ 1894_x000d_ Dear Alasinga,_x000d_ Listen to an old story. A lazy tramp sauntering along the road saw an old man sitting at the door of his house and stopped to inquire of him the whereabouts of a certain place. "How far is such and such a village?" he asked. The old man remained silent. The man repeated his query several times. Still there was no answer. Disgusted at this, the traveller turned to go away. The old man then stood up and said, "The village of__ is only a mile from here." "What!" said the tramp, "Why did you not speak when I asked you before?" "Because then", said the old man, "you seemed so halting and careless about proceeding, but now you are starting off in good earnest, and you have a right to an answer."_x000d_ Will you remember this story, my son? Go to work, the rest will come: "Whosoever not trusting in anything else but Me, rests on Me, I supply him with everything he needs" (Gita, IX.22). This is no dream._x000d_ . . . The work should be in the line of preaching and serving, at the present time. Choose a place of meeting where you can assemble every week holding a service and reading the Upanishads with the commentaries, and so slowly go on learning and working. Every-thing will come to you if you put your shoulders to the wheel. . . ._x000d_ Now, go to work! G. G.'s nature is of the emotional type, you have a level head; so work together; plunge in; this is only the beginning. Every nation must save itself; we must not depend upon funds from America for the revival of Hinduism, for that is a delusion. To have a centre is a great thing; try to secure such a place in a large town like Madras, and go on radiating a living force in all directions. Begin slowly. Start with a few lay missionaries; gradually others will come who will devote their whole lives to the work. Do not try to be a ruler. He is the best ruler who can serve well. Be true unto death. The work we want--we do not seek wealth, name or fame. . . . Be brave. . . . Endeavour to interest the people of Madras in collecting funds for the purpose, and then make a beginning. . . . Be perfectly unselfish, and you will be sure to succeed. . . . Without losing the independence in work, show all regards to your superiors. Work in harmony. . . . My children must be ready to jump into fire, if needed, to accomplish their work. Now work, work, work! We will stop and compare notes later on. Have patience, perseverance, and purity._x000d_ I am writing no book on Hinduism just now. I am simply jotting down my thoughts. I do not know if I shall publish them. What is in books? The world is too full of foolish things already. If you could start a magazine on Vedantic lines, it would further our object. Be positive; do not criticise others. Give your message, teach what you have to teach, and there stop. The Lord knows the rest. . . ._x000d_ Do not send me any more newspapers, as I do not notice the missionary criticisms on myself; and here the public estimation of me is better for that reason._x000d_ . . . If you are really my children, you will fear nothing, stop at nothing. You will be like lions. We must rouse India and the whole world. No cowardice. I will take no nay. Do you understand? Be true unto death! . . . The secret of this is Guru-Bhakti--faith in the Guru unto death! Have you that? I believe with all my heart that you have, and you know that I have confidence in you--so go to work. You must succeed. My prayers and benedictions follow every step you take. Work in harmony. Be patient with everybody. Every one has my love. I am watching you. Onward! Onward! This is just the beginning. My little work here makes a big echo in India, do you know? So I shall not return there in a hurry. My intention is to do something permanent here, and with that object I am working day by day. I am every day gaining the confidence of the American people. . . . Expand your hearts and hopes, as wide as the world. Study Sanskrit, especially the three Bhashyas (commentaries) on the Vedanta. Be ready, for I have many plans for the future. Try to be a magnetic speaker. Electrify the people. Everything will come to you if you have faith. So tell Kidi, in fact, tell all my children there. In time they will do great things at which the world will wonder. Take heart and work. Show me something you have done. Show me a temple, a press, a paper, a home for me. Where shall I come to if you cannot make a home for me in Madras? Electrify people. Raise funds and preach. Be true to your mission. Thus far you promise well, so go on and do better and better still._x000d_ . . . Do not fight with people; do not antagonise anyone. Why should we mind if Jack and John become Christians? Let them follow whatever religion suits them. Why should you mix in controversies? Bear with the various opinions of everybody. Patience, purity, and perseverance will prevail._x000d_ Yours etc.,_x000d_ Vivekananda

U.S.A._x000d_ 1894_x000d_ Dear Dharmapala,_x000d_ I have forgotten your address in Calcutta; so I direct this to the Math. I heard about your speeches in Calcutta and how wonderful was the effect produced by them. A certain retired missionary here wrote me a letter addressing me as brother and then hastily went to publish my short answer and make a show. But you know what people here think of such gentlemen. Moreover, the same missionary went privately to some of my friends to ask them not to befriend me. Of course he met with universal contempt. I am quite astonished at this man's behaviour--a preacher of religion to take to such underhand dealings! Unfortunately too much of that in every country and in every religion. Last winter I travelled a good deal in this country although the weather was very severe. I thought it would be dreadful, but I did not find it so after all. You remember Col. Neggenson, President of the Free Religious Society. He makes very kind inquiries about you. I met Dr. Carpenter of Oxford (England) the other day. He delivered an address on the ethics of Buddhism at Plymouth. It was very sympathetic and scholarly. He made inquiries about you and your paper. Hope, your noble work will succeed. You are a worthy servant of Him who came Bahujana Hitaya Bahujana Sukhaya (for the good of the many, for the happiness of the many)._x000d_ . . . The Christianity that is preached in India is quite different from what one sees here; you will be astonished to hear, Dharmapala, that I have friends in this country amongst the clergy of the Episcopal and even Presbyterian churches, who are as broad, as liberal, and as sincere as you are in your own religion. The real spiritual man is broad everywhere. His love forces him to be so. Those to whom religion is a trade are forced to become narrow and mischievous by their introduction into religion of the competitive, fighting, and selfish methods of the world._x000d_ Yours ever in brotherly love,_x000d_ Vivekananda

Having given from the Vedas, from Sanskrit literature and the dramas these Ideals, and having cited the laws of today favourable to the women of India, he paid his filial homage to his own mother as having enabled him to do the best he had done, by her life of unselfish love and purity, that caused him by his very inheritance to choose the life of a monk.

To _x000d_ The Mother of Swami Vivekananda,_x000d_ _x000d_ Dear Madam,_x000d_ _x000d_ At this Christmas-tide, when the gift of Mary's son to the world is celebrated and rejoiced over with us, it would seem the time of remembrance. We, who have your son in our midst, send you greet¬ings. His generous service to men, women, children in our midst was laid at your feet by him, in an address he gave us the other day on the Ideals of Motherhood in India. The worship of his mother will be to all who heard him an inspiration and an uplift._x000d_ _x000d_ Accept, dear Madam, our grateful recognition of your life and work in and through your son. And may it be accepted by you as a slight token of remembrance to serve in its true inheritance from God, of Brotherhood and Unity.

Swamiji's picture of Hindu women-so different from that painted by the missionaries and others-deeply stirred the women of Cambridge and Boston. Unknown to him they sent to his mother a picture of the Virgin Mary and Child accompanied by a letter of profound salutations and respect. Remembering how keenly he felt for his mother, one can imagine that this tribute, of all those paid to him, perhaps gave him when he heard of it the deepest personal joy.

It was conspicuous in the Swami that wherever he went he paid the highest tribute to his mother, whenever occasion arose. One of his friends, recalling the few happy weeks that he had. spent with the Swami as fellow guest in the house of a common friend, writes:

He spoke often of his mother. I remember his saying that she had wonderful self control, and that he had never known any woman who could fast so long. She had once gone without food, he said, for as many as fourteen days together. And it was not uncommon for his followers to hear such words upon his lips as: "It was my mother who inspired me to this. Her character was a constant inspiration to my life and work."

It is probable, though not certain, that among the many classes Swamiji held that December (far more than originally scheduled) was a series later printed in booklet form under the title Six Lessons on Raja Yoga and, later still, under the same title in volume eight of the Complete Works. Through the unpublished memoirs of Mrs. Clinton French it is known that the booklet, printed in San Francisco in 1913, was "a compilation of typewritten notes of class talks given by Swami Vivekananda in Mrs. Ole Bull's house.

But while we know where Swamiji held these classes, we do not know for certain when he did and have to be satisfied for the time being with the guess that it was during these winter weeks at Cambridge when he may have been patterning his work, to some extent at least, on that of his summer at Greenacre."* (At Greenacre Swamiji had taught some raja yoga, as well as Advaita Vedanta, and, as we have seen, Mrs. Bull liked to think of the Cambridge program she was sponsoring as a "Greenacre Annex.")_x000d_ * As far as is known today, Swamiji stayed at Mrs. Bull’s house in Cambridge only three times: in October of 1894 for about ten days, when he held no classes at all; in December of 1894 for three weeks or so, when he held many classes; and in March of 6 for a week or so, when he held, as far as we know, only two classes. The most suitable of these periods for the holidays of raja yoga classes would seem to be that of December 1894.

If Swamiji held the six lessons on raja yoga in December (or for that matter, at any other period), he very likely did so before a small, intimate group, consisting, perhaps, of his fellow house guests and a few interested and serious friends. The classes were explicit in regard to the practice of the various steps of raja yoga; indeed, Six Lessons contains the most detailed and complete information we have regarding the practical instructions Swamiji gave in the West to a small, informal group of people.

But whether or not Swamiji held these classes in raja yoga at Cambridge in December of 1894, his classes as a whole, growing out of those at Greenacre, were, like them, forerunners of the concentrated teaching that he was to engage in the following year.

He was, indeed, intensely busy those December weeks. With two classes daily of his own, a lecture once a week, and the necessity, and perhaps the pleasure, of attending the classes and lectures of his fellow house guests, his days were filled.

"I would have run into town to see you before this, had I time," he wrote to Mary Hale, who was in Boston and who, for one reason or another, was reluctant to visit Cambridge. "I am kept pretty busy the whole day. Then there is the fear of not meeting you. If you have time you may write and I shall snatch the first opportunity to see you. My time of course is always in the afternoon; so long I shall be here, that is until the 27th or 28th of this month, I will have to be very busy in the morning till 12 or 1.

Mary Hale did not, or could not, accept Mrs. Bull's invitation, and by her persistent aloofness she no doubt missed some good times. Mrs. Bull, known as a charming and adept hostess, could, when she wished, bring an air of idyllic festivity to the gatherings in her home, and one cannot imagine, particularly since Swamiji was among her guests, that there were any dull or uneasy moments. Just how many house guests Mrs. Bull entertained at this time it is hard to say. There were, we know, the lecturers and the musicians; then there were Miss Sarah J. Farmer and, according to a newspaper account, a Mme Magnuason. There were probably others, for the house was a large one and in addition a fair-sized guest house, known as the "Studio House," could accommodate a number of people. The occasion was, to be sure, a sort of "Greenacre Annex," complete even to Miss Farmer, gently presiding in her gray veil along with Mrs. Bull.

In addition to Miss Farmer, the house guests who became close friends of Swamiji and who were to help him in whatever way they could throughout the remainder of his American visit were Miss Emma Thursby and Mrs. Florence Adams.

Miss Thursby, who was then nearing her fiftieth birthday, was on the verge of retiring from a highly successful career as concert singer, during which she had reached the pinnacle of fame, feted gloriously in America and all but worshiped in the more demonstrative Europe. Yet with all the adulation she bad received, she had somehow remained as simple and un¬worldly as she had been at the beginning of her career when, in the 1860s, she had sung as soloist in Reverend Henry Ward Beecher's Plymouth Church in Brooklyn. She was retiring now from public life not because her voice had lost any of its volume or beauty of tone, but simply because the hectic and demanding life of a concert singer was, she had found, spiritually unrewarding. She sought a deeper meaning and a richer purpose to life, and, according to her biographer, the late Richard McCandless Gipson, it had been at this introspective moment that she had heard Swamiji at the Parliament of Religions and had been at once impressed by his teachings. As we have seen, Miss Thursby had attended one of Swamiji's first lectures in New York, and it may have been she who introduced him to Mrs. Bull, whom she had known for many years, having often sung as co-star with the much beloved violinist, Ole Bull.

Mrs. Florence James Adams, in whom Miss Thursby had found a protegee, was in her own way a woman with a career. She was, as far as can be made out, a teacher of "Expression." Swamiji referred to her as a "physical culturist," a term to which she very likely would have objected, For, according to all accounts, physical culture in her hands took wings and rose, unabashed, to metaphysical heights. In any case, Mrs. Adams, then in her early thirties, was a woman of great charm and a speaker of conviction, herself a master of expression in all its aspects. It is evident that Swamiji liked her, and since one often finds her name mentioned in his letters, the reader may be interested in the following excerpt from an unidentified newspaper clipping, which tells something more about her.

In Mr. Ferd Peck’s box sat a little woman whose face attracted me by its peculiar sweetness of expression and its wonderful animation. Mrs. Milward Adams, the charm¬ing wife of handsome Milward Adams, the able manager of the Auditorium [Opera House], is perhaps the brightest, most cultured and most sought after of any of the women who move in the higher social circles of Chicago. Hers is a busy life. She devotes many hours of the week to the instruction of young ladies just out of school who desire a more perfect composure of manner or a more graceful carriage. Mrs. Adams is an exponent of the Delsartean system and she has numbered among her pupils many a minister and actor. She was a Miss Florence James, of Boston, and an elocutionist of rare gifts when she came west [that is, to Chicago] and gave private readings and instructed the children of Prof. Tomlins' school in calis¬thenics and gymnastics. It was, I believe, something over _x000d_ # _x000d_ seven years ago that she met and married Mr. Milward Adams, at that time manager of Central Music Hall. No one in the Second City [Chicago] has been more interested in the completion of that mammoth pile of masonry, the Auditorium, than Mrs. Adams. In person she is petite, but her graceful and erect carriage enables her to appear some inches taller than she really measures. Her manner is sincere, cordial and unaffected, and a subtle magnetism which she possesses brings her admirers by the score and endears her to all who have the pleasure of her acquaint¬ance.

An article concerning Mrs. Bull's well-attended December Conferences was published in the Boston Evening Transcript two days before Swamiji spoke. It dealt primarily with the personable Mrs. Adams and read in part:_x000d_ There is a fine old mansion at the corner of Brattle street and Fairview avenue, Cambridge, where Mrs. Ole Bull, Miss Sarah J. Farmer and others are holding conferences, classes, discussions, etc., on topics of vital import.

An attractive part of this "feast of reason" are the morning talks which began on Thursday when Lady Henry Somerset and Col. T. W. Higginson were the principal speakers on "woman suffrage."

This morning there was a large attendance and an intensely instructive talk by Mrs. Mil¬ward Adams of Chicago, who took as her theme "Orderly Thought and Personal Culture." Mrs. Adams was intro¬duced by Mrs. Bull, who spoke of the fine art of living and paid a graceful compliment to the speaker of the morning, who had much valuable experience in practical directions._x000d_ Mrs. Adams referred to the craze for physical culture that has swept over the land. She believed that the reaction had now set in and moderation would follow. She de¬scribed the innate desire of every human being to express his thoughts and feelings, and having cultivated language as a symbol, the voice naturally becomes of much im¬portance. The excessive animation that is so distinctively American often carries us beyond a proper balance._x000d_ What is needed is calm, settled, orderly thought that all our forces may be centred and ready to be turned in any direction that may be needed. The ancient symbol of the great eye in a triangle, signifying the mental, physical and emotional sides of our natures seems to be particularly expressive of perfect unity._x000d_ Before Mrs. Adams's talk, Miss Emma Thursby sang a group of songs by Cowan Chadwick and Toubert, which made the hour all the more delightful._x000d_ On Monday, Swami Vivekananda will talk on "The Vedanta Philosophy."

There can be little doubt that during his stay in Cambridge Swamiji became more than casually acquainted not only with his fellow house guests but with the many Harvard professors whom Mrs. Bull numbered among her friends.

Harvard's philosophy department was at this period in its golden age. There were on its staff George Palmer, William James, Josiah Royce, Hugo Munsterberg, and the young George Santayana, all of whom in 1894 were in residence and each of whom disagreed volubly and zestfully with all the others. In Cambridge there lived also the brilliant Charles Sanders Peirce, neither a professor at Harvard nor, being divorced, a socially acceptable layman, but a power behind the philosophical scenes nonetheless.

That Mrs. Bull was among those few who chose not to ostracize Mr. Peirce because of his matrimonial misfortune is evidenced by the fact that he gave a course of classes at her home the following year, and thus it is probable that he and Swamiji met.

Although morally cautious, Cambridge society was, compared to that of Boston, informal, friendly, and based, on the whole, more upon brains than upon first-family traditions. The members of the Harvard faculty and their wives (wearing by choice the same decent dress season after season) entertained one another with an easy and simple grace, and they would surely have welcomed Swamiji into their midst without too much alarm.

It is, indeed, probable that the professors' acquaintance with Swamiji and his teachings on the Vedanta philosophy during these weeks led to his being invited to speak before the Graduate Philosophical School of Harvard in March of 1896-one of the greatest intellectual honors paid to him in America and of his being subsequently offered the Harvard Chair in Eastern Philosophy, a position he was to decline._x000d_ Not all of Swamiji's talks at Cambridge, however, were concerned with the philosophy of Vedanta. As has been seen, his morning lecture given on December 17 pertained to the ideals of motherhood in India. As told in the Life, this address, given at the "special solicitation" of Mrs. Bull, "was deep, stirring and patriotic. . . . It was as well, though unconsciously, a reply to the remarks which many ignorant or self interested persons had circulated concerning the `degraded' condition of Indian Womanhood. Swamiji's reply might not have been altogether "unconscious," for he was well aware of the remarks circulated concerning the condition of Indian women.

In his portrayal of Hindu women Swamiji dwelt on the beauty and nobility of their character and on the high regard in which they were held. It has been my great good fortune to have come upon a transcript of this heretofore unpublished talk in the papers of Mrs. Ole Bull, which have been made available to me through the kindness of Mrs. Sylvea Bull Curtis.

The full talk, taken down as Swamiji gave it by Miss Frances Willard's stenographer, is given in Appendix C, but let me here quote a small portion of it. After giving many instances of the nobility and valor of Hindu women through India's long history, he went on:

As it happened, however, he prolonged his stay, and on Christmas night we find him at one of Mrs. Bull's charming and intimate parties, a description of which was given in the Chicago Inter Ocean of December 29:

LIFE IN BOSTON_x000d_ ___________x000d_ Christmas Evening with Mrs. Ole Bull_x000d_ _x000d_ Boston, Mass., Dec. 26-Special Correspondence: Christ¬mas evening was made an enchanted one to the group of guests bidden last evening by Mrs. Ole Bull to her beautiful house in Cambridge. The great salon, where the marble bust of Ole Bull on a pedestal seems to dominate the atmosphere and the grand piano under Mrs. Bull's exquisite touch gives melody that seems not of this world; the Norwegian room, a unique and beautiful apartment, and the various little alcove nooks and the vestibule were thrown open-not to a large company but a little group of congenial friends who realized the charm and the loveliness of the occasion. Mrs. Bull's friend and guest, Miss Farmer, was with her, adding much to the enjoyment, and Mrs. Milward Adams, of Chicago; Mme. Magnusson, so pleas¬antly remembered at the Exposition, and Swami Vivek¬ananda were guests of the house. . . .

[The article digresses here with several paragraphs on Mrs. Ole Bull and then continues:]

Did I note in passing the impressive words spoken by_x000d_ # _x000d_ Swami Vivekananda at Mrs. Bull's last night? In his scarlet gown, with turbaned head and by request intoning Sanscrit in his musical voice, while the light flickered in the open fire-place; the sconces of wax candles burned dimly; and the little group of friends sat hushed and reverent-it was a scene for a painter, and at the close he gave us, by request, the benediction in Sanscrit, the significance of which was the prayer that the courage and strength of the occasion might remain in our lives and the Prince of peace reign in our hearts.

The Swami spent Christmas day at Mrs. Bull's home and on December 28 left for Brooklyn, where he had been invited by Dr. Lewis G. Janes, to give a series of lectures before the Brooklyn Ethical Association.

To Mrs. G. W. Hale_x000d_ C/o Mrs. Ole Bull_x000d_ 168 Brattle Street_x000d_ Cambridge, Mass._x000d_ 6 December 1894_x000d_ Dear Mother,_x000d_ I have not heard long from you. What is the matter with you? I am here in Cambridge and will be here for three weeks to come and will have to lecture and hold classes. Here is a Chicago lady, Mrs. [Milward] Adams, who lectures on tone building etc._x000d_ Today we had a lecture from Lady Henry Somerset on Woman Suffrage. Miss Willard of Chicago was here and Julia Ward Howe._x000d_ Col. Higginson, Dr. [J. Estlin] Carpenter of Eng. and many other friends were present. Altogether it was a grand affair. I have received a letter from India informing me that the phono¬graph was duly received._x000d_ I have sent part of my money to India and intend sending nearly the whole of it very soon. Only, I will keep enough for the passage back. Saw Mother Temple several times in New York. She was kind as usual. So was Mrs. Spalding._x000d_ Sister Mary wrote me a letter from Brookline [Massa chusetts]. I am sure she would have enjoyed Lady Somerset's lecture so much. I wrote her about it, but I have not heard from her yet._x000d_ I will go to see her the first day I get some time. I am very busy. Hope the sisters at home are enjoying themselves. I will try to run into Chicago for a few days if I can._x000d_ Please write me all about the holy family as soon as you get time._x000d_ Mrs. Guernsey was very ill and still so weak that she cannot get out of her room._x000d_ Miss Helen Bagley was seized with diphtheria in New York and suffered a good deal. She has recovered, however, and the Bagleys have gone home to Detroit._x000d_ With my Love to you all, I remain,_x000d_ Ever yours affectionately,_x000d_ Vivekananda_x000d_ P.S.__Kindly send my India mail c/o Mrs. Sara Ole Bull, 168 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Mass._x000d_ V.

168, Brattle Street_x000d_ Cambridge_x000d_ 8th December, 1894_x000d_ Dear Sister {Mary Hale},_x000d_ I have been here three days. We had a nice lecture from Lady Henry Somerset. I have a class every morning here on Vedanta and other topics. Perhaps you have got the copy of Vedantism by this time which I left with Mother Temple to be sent over. I went to dine with the Spaldings another day. That day they urged me, against my repeated protests, to criticise the Americans. I am afraid they did not relish it. It is of course always impossible to do it. What about Mother Church and the family at Chicago? I had no letters from them a long time. I would have run into town to see you before this, had I time. I am kept pretty busy the whole day. Then there is the fear of not meeting you._x000d_ If you have time, you may write, and I shall snatch the first opportunity to see you. My time of course is always in the afternoon, so long I shall be here, that is until the 27th or 28th of this month; I will have to be very busy in the morning till 12 or 1._x000d_ With my love to you all,_x000d_ Ever your affectionate brother,_x000d_ Vivekananda

The following lecture was delivered at Cambridge, December 17, 1894, and recorded by Miss Frances Willard's stenogra¬pher. _x000d_ Swami Vivekananda faced bigotry in America on several issues of Indian culture__one was the Indian woman. Naturally he sought to correct Western misconceptions. When he lectured in his own country, however, there was no greater advocate for improving the life of Indian women than the Swami._x000d_ In speaking about the women of India, ladies and gentle¬men, I feel that I am going to talk about my mothers and sisters in India to the women of another race, many of whom have been like mothers and sisters to me. But though, unfortunately, within very recent times there have been mouths only to curse the women of our country, I have found that there are some who bless them too. I have found such noble souls in this nation as Mrs. [Ole] Bull and Miss [Sarah] Farmer and Miss [Frances] Willard, and that wonderful representative of the highest aristoc¬racy of the world, whose life reminds me of that man of India, six hundred years before the birth of Christ, who gave up his throne to mix with the people. Lady Henry Somerset has been a revelation to me. I become bold when I find such noble souls who will not curse, whose mouths are full of blessing for me, my country, our men and women, and whose hands and hearts are ever ready to do service to humanity._x000d_ I first intend to take a glimpse into times past of Indian history, and we will find something unique. All of you are aware, perhaps, that you Americans and we Hindus and this lady from Iceland [Mrs. Sigrid Magnusson] are the descendants of one common ancestry known as Aryans. Above all, we find three ideas wherever the Aryans go: the village community, the rights of women and a joyful religion. _x000d_ The first [idea] is the system of village communities__as we have just heard from Mrs. Bull concerning the North. Each man was his own [lord?] and owned the land. All these political institutions of the world we now see, are the developments of those village systems. As the Aryans went over to different countries and settled, certain circumstances developed this in¬stitution, others that. _x000d_ The next idea of the Aryans is the freedom of women. It is in the Aryan literature that we find women in ancient times taking the same share as men, and in no other literature of the world. _x000d_ Going back to our Vedas__they are the oldest literature the world possesses and are composed by your and my common ancestors (they were not written in India__perhaps on the coast of the Baltic, perhaps in Central Asia__we do not know). _x000d_ Their oldest portion is composed of hymns, and these hymns are to the gods whom the Aryans worshipped. I may be pardoned for using the word gods; the literal translation is "the bright ones". These hymns are dedicated to Fire, to the Sun, to Varuna and other deities. The titles run: "such and such a sage composed this verse, dedicated to such and such a deity". _x000d_ In the tenth chapter comes a peculiar hymn__for the sage is a woman__and it is dedicated to the one God who is at the background of all these gods. All the previous hymns are spoken in the third person, as if someone were addressing the deities. But this hymn takes a departure: God [as the Devi] is speaking for herself. The pronoun used is "I". "I am the Empress of the Universe, the Fulfiller of all prayers." _x000d_ This is the first glimpse of women's work in the Vedas. As we go on, we find them taking a greater share__even officiating as priests. There is not one passage throughout the whole mass of literature of the Vedas which can be construed even indirectly as signifying that woman could never be a priest. In fact, there are many examples of women officiating as priests. _x000d_ Then we come to the last portion of these Vedas__which is really the religion of India__the concentrated wisdom of which has not been surpassed even in this century. There, too, we find women preeminent. A large portion of these books are words which have proceeded from the mouths of women. It is there__ _x000d_ recorded with their names and teachings. _x000d_ There is that beautiful story of the great sage Yâjnavalkya, the one who visited the kingdom of the great king Janaka. And there in that assembly of the learned, people came to ask him questions. One man asked him, "How am I to perform this sac¬rifice?" Another asked him, "How am I to perform the other sacrifice?" And after he had answered them, there arose a woman who said, "These are childish questions. Now, have a care: I take these two arrows, my two questions. Answer them if you can, and we will then call you a sage. The first is: What is the soul? The second is: What is God?" _x000d_ Thus arose in India the great questions about the soul and God, and these came from the mouth of a woman. The sage had to pass an examination before her, and he passed well._x000d_ Coming to the next stratum of literature, our epics, we find that education has not degenerated. Especially in the caste of princes this ideal was most wonderfully held. _x000d_ In the Vedas we find this idea of marrying__the girls chose for themselves; so the boys. In the next stratum they are married by their parents, except in one caste. _x000d_ Even here I would ask you to look at another side. What¬ever may be said of the Hindus, they are one of the most learned races the world has ever produced. The Hindu is the metaphysi¬cian; he applies everything to his intellect. Everything has to be settled by astrological calculation. _x000d_ The idea was that the stars govern the fate of every man and woman. Even today when a child is born, a horoscope is cast. That determines the character of the child. One child is born of a divine nature, another of a human, others of lower character. The difficulty was: If a child who was of a monster charac¬ter was united with a child of a god character, would they not have a tendency to degenerate each other? _x000d_ The next difficulty was: Our laws did not allow marriage within the same clans. Not only may one not marry within his own family__or even one of his cousins__but one must not marry into the clan of his father or even of his mother. _x000d_ A third difficulty was: If there had been leprosy or phthisis or any such incurable disease within six generations of either bride or bridegroom, then there must not be a marriage. _x000d_ Now taking [into account] these three difficulties, the Brahmin says: "If I leave it to the choice of the boy or girl to marry, the boy or girl will be fascinated with a beautiful face. And then very likely all these circumstances will bring ruin to the family". This is the primary idea that governs our marriage laws, as you will find. Whether right or wrong, there is this philosophy at the background. Prevention is better than cure. _x000d_ That misery exists in this world is because we give birth to misery. So the whole question is how to prevent the birth of miserable children. How far the rights of a society should ex-tend over the individual is an open question. But the Hindus say that the choice of marriage should not be left in the hands of the boy or girl. _x000d_ I do not mean to say that this is the best thing to do. Nor do I see that leaving it in their hands is at all a perfect solution. I have not found a solution yet in my own mind; nor do I see that any country has one._x000d_ We come next to another picture. I told you that there was another peculiar form of marriage (generally among the royalty) where the father of the girl invited different princes and noble-men and they had an assembly. The young lady, the daughter of the king, was borne on a sort of chair before each one of the princes in turn. And the herald would repeat: "This is Prince So and so, and these are his qualifications". The young girl would either wait or say, "Move on". And before the next prince, the crier would also give a description, and the girl would say, "Move on". (All this would be arranged beforehand; she already had the liking for somebody before this.) Then at last she would ask one of the servants to throw the garland over the head of the man, and it would be thrown to show he was ac¬cepted. (The last of these marriages was the cause of the Mo¬hammedan invasion of India.) These marriages were specially reserved for the prince caste._x000d_ The oldest Sanskrit poem in existence, the Râmâyana, has embodied the loftiest Hindu ideal of a woman in the character of Sitâ. We have not time to go through her life of infinite patience and goodness. We worship her as God incarnate, and she is named before her husband, Râma. We say not "Mr. and Mrs.", but "Mrs. And Mr." and so on, with all the gods and goddesses, naming the woman first. _x000d_ There is another peculiar conception of the Hindu. Those who have been studying with me are aware that the central con¬ception of Hindu philosophy is of the Absolute; that is the back¬ground of the universe. This Absolute Being, of whom we can predicate nothing, has Its powers spoken of as She__that is, the real personal God in India is She. This Shakti of the Brahman is always in the feminine gender. _x000d_ Rama is considered the type of the Absolute, and Sita that of Power. We have no time to go over all the life of Sita, but I will quote a passage from her life that is very much suited to the ladies of this country. _x000d_ The picture opens when she was in the forest with her hus¬band, whither they were banished. There was a female sage whom they both went to see. Her fasts and devotions had ema¬ciated her body. _x000d_ Sita approached this sage and bowed down before her. The sage placed her hand on the head of Sita and said: "It is a great blessing to possess a beautiful body; you have that. It is a greater blessing to have a noble husband; you have that. It is the greatest blessing to be perfectly obedient to such a husband; you are that. You must be happy". _x000d_ Sita replied, "Mother, I am glad that God has given me a beautiful body and that I have so devoted a husband. But as to the third blessing, I do not know whether I obey him or he obeys me. One thing alone I remember, that when he took me by the hand before the sacrificial fire__whether it was a reflection of the fire or whether God himself made it appear to me__I found that I was his and he was mine. And since then, I have found that I am the complement of his life, and he of mine". _x000d_ Portions of this poem have been translated into the English language. Sita is the ideal of a woman in India and worshipped as God incarnate._x000d_ We come now to Manu the great lawgiver. Now, in this book there is an elaborate description of how a child should be educated. We must remember that it was compulsory with the Aryans that a child be educated, whatever his caste. After describing how a child should be educated, Manu adds: "Along the same lines, the daughters are to be educated__exactly as the boys". _x000d_ I have often heard that there are other passages where women are condemned. I admit that in our sacred books there are many passages which condemn women as offering tempta¬tion; you can see that for yourselves. But there are also passages that glorify women as the power of God. And there are other passages which state that in that house where one drop of a woman's tear falls, the gods are never pleased and the house goes to ruin. Drinking wine, killing a woman and killing a Brahmin are the highest crimes in the Hindu religion. I admit there are condemnatory sentences [in some of our books]; but here I claim the superiority of these Hindu books, for in the books of other races there is only condemnation and no good word for a woman._x000d_ Next, I will come to our old dramas. Whatever the books say, the dramas are the perfect representation of society as it then existed. In these, which were written from four hundred years before Christ onward, we find even universities full of both boys and girls. We would not [now] find Hindu women, as they have since become cut off from higher education. But [at that time], they were everywhere pretty much the same as they are in this country__going out to the gardens and parks to take promenades. There is another point which I bring before you and where the Hindu woman is still superior to all other women in the world__her rights. The right to possess property is as absolute for women in India as for men__and has been for thousands and thousands of years. _x000d_ If you have any lawyer friend and can take up commentaries on the Hindu law, you will find it all for yourselves. A girl may bring a million dollars to her husband, but every dollar of that is hers. Nobody has any right to touch one dollar of that. If the husband dies without issue, the whole property of the husband goes to her, even if his father or mother is living. And that has been the law from the past to the present time. That is some¬thing which the Hindu woman has had beyond that of the women of other countries. _x000d_ The older books__or even newer books__do not prohibit the Hindu widows from being married; it is a mistake to think so. They give them their choice, and that is given to both men and women. The idea in our religion is that marriage is for the weak, and I don't see any reason to give up that idea today. They who find themselves complete__what is the use of their marrying? And those that marry__they are given one chance. When that chance is over, both men and women are looked down upon if they marry again; but it is not that they are pro¬hibited. It is nowhere said that a widow is not to marry. The widow and widower who do not marry are considered more spiritual. _x000d_ Men, of course, break through this law and go and marry; whereas women__they being of a higher spiritual nature__keep to the law. For instance, our books say that eating meat is bad and sinful, but you may still eat such and such a meat__mutton, for instance. I have seen thousands of men who eat mutton, and never in my life have I seen a woman of higher caste who eats meat of any kind. This shows that their nature is to keep the law__keeping more towards religion. But do not judge too harshly of Hindu men. You must try to look at the Hindu law from my position too, for I am a Hindu man. _x000d_ This non marriage of widows gradually grew into a custom. And whenever in India a custom becomes rigid, it is almost impossible to break through it__just as in your country, you will find how hard it is to break through a five day custom of fashion. In the lower castes, except two, the widows remarry. _x000d_ There is a passage in our later law books [which states] that a woman shall not read the Vedas. But they are prohibited to even a weak Brahmin. If a Brahmin boy is not strong minded, the law is applied to him also. But that does not show that education is prohibited to them, for the Vedas are not all that the Hindus have. Every other book women can read. All the mass of Sanskrit literature, that whole ocean of literature__science, drama, poetry__is all for them. They can go there and read everything, except the [Vedic] scriptures. _x000d_ In later days the idea was that woman was not intended to be a priest; so what is the use of her studying the Vedas? In that, the Hindus are not so far behind other nations. When women give up the world and join our Order, they are no longer con¬sidered either men or women. They have no sex. The whole question of high or low caste, man or woman, dies out entirely._x000d_ Whatever I know of religion I learned from my master, and he learned it of a woman._x000d_ Coming back to the Rajput woman, I will try to bring to you a story from some of our old books__how during the Mohammedan conquest, one of these women was the cause of what led to the conquest of India. _x000d_ A Rajput prince of Kanauj__a very ancient city__had a daughter [Samyukta]. She had heard of the military fame of Prithvi Rai [King of Ajmere and Delhi] and all his glory, and she was in love with him. _x000d_ Now her father wanted to hold a Râjasuya sacrifice, so he invited all the kings in the country. And in that sacrifice, they all had to render menial service to him because he was superior over all; and with that sacrifice he declared there would be a choice by his daughter. _x000d_ But the daughter was already in love with Prithvi Rai. He was very mighty and was not going to acknowledge loyalty to the king, her father, so he refused the invitation. Then the king made a golden statue of Prithvi Rai and put it near the door. He said that that was the duty he had given him to perform__that of a porter. _x000d_ The upshot of the whole affair was that Prithvi Rai, like a true knight, came and took the lady behind him on his horse, and they both fled. _x000d_ When the news came to her father, he gave chase with his army, and there was a great battle in which the majority of both armies was killed. And [thus the Rajputs were so weakened that] the Mohammedan empire in India began._x000d_ When the Mohammedan empire was being established in northern India, the Queen of Chitore [Râni Padmini] was famed for her beauty. And the report of her beauty reached the sultan, and he wrote a letter for the queen to be sent to his harem. The result was a terrible war between the King of Chitore and the sultan. The Mohammedans invaded Chitore. And when the Rajputs found they could not defend themselves any more, the men all took sword in hand and killed and were killed, and the women perished in the flames. _x000d_ After the men had all perished, the conqueror entered the city. There in the street was rising a horrible flame. He saw circles of women going around it, led by the queen herself. When he approached near and asked the queen to refrain from jumping into the flames, she said, "This is how the Rajput woman treats you", and threw herself into the fire. _x000d_ It is said that 74,500 women perished in the flames that day to save their honour from the hands of the Mohammedans. Even today when we write a letter, after sealing it we write "74½" upon it, meaning that if one dares to open this letter, that sin of killing 74,500 women will be upon his head._x000d_ I will tell you the story of another beautiful Rajput girl. There is a peculiar custom in our country called "protection". Women can send small bracelets of silken thread to men. And if a girl sends one of these to a man, that man becomes her brother. _x000d_ During the reign of the last of the Mogul emperors__the cruel man who destroyed that most brilliant empire of India__he similarly heard of the beauty of a Rajput chieftain's daughter. Orders were sent that she should be brought to the Mogul harem._x000d_ Then a messenger came from the emperor to her with his picture, and he showed it to her. In derision she stamped upon it with her feet and said, "Thus the Rajput girl treats your Mogul emperor". As a result, the imperial army was marched into Raj putana. _x000d_ In despair the chieftain's daughter thought of a device. She took a number of these bracelets and sent them to the Rajput princes with a message: "Come and help us". All the Rajputs assembled, and so the imperial forces had to go back again._x000d_ I will tell you a peculiar proverb in Rajputana. There is a caste in India called the shop class, the traders. They are very intelligent__some of them__but the Hindus think they are rather sharp. But it is a peculiar fact that the women of that caste are not as intelligent as the men. On the other hand, the Rajput man is not half as intelligent as the Rajput woman. _x000d_ The common proverb in Rajputana is: "The intelligent woman begets the dull son, and the dull woman begets the sharp son". The fact is, whenever any state or kingdom in Rajputana has been managed by a woman, it has been managed wonder¬fully well._x000d_ We come to another class of women. This mild Hindu race produces fighting women from time to time. Some of you may have heard of the woman [Lakshmi Bâi, Queen of Jhansi] who, during the Mutiny of 1857, fought against the English soldiers and held her own ground for two years__leading modern armies, managing batteries and always charging at the head of her army. This queen was a Brahmin girl._x000d_ A man whom I know lost three of his sons in that war. When he talks of them he is calm, but when he talks of this woman his voice becomes animated. He used to say that she was a goddess__she was not a human being. This old veteran thinks he never saw better generalship._x000d_ The story of Chand Bibi, or Chand Sultana [1546 1599], is well known in India. She was the Queen of Golconda, where the diamond mines were. For months she defended herself. At last, a breach was made in the walls. When the imperial army tried to rush in there, she was in full armour, and she forced the troops to go back. In still later times, perhaps you will be astonished to know that a great English general had once to face a Hindu girl of sixteen. Women in statesmanship, managing territories, governing countries, even making war, have proved themselves equal to men__if not superior. In India I have no doubt of that. When¬ever they have had the opportunity, they have proved that they have as much ability as men, with this advantage__that they seldom degenerate. They keep to the moral standard, which is innate in their nature. And thus as governors and rulers of their state, they prove__at least in India__far superior to men. John Stuart Mill mentions this fact. _x000d_ Even at the present day, we see women in India managing vast estates with great ability. There were two ladies where I was born who were the proprietors of large estates and patronesses of learning and art and who managed these estates with their own brains and looked to every detail of the business._x000d_ Each nation, beyond a general humanity, develops a certain peculiarity of character__so in religion, so in politics, so in the physical body, so in mental habitude, so in men and women, so in character. One nation develops one peculiarity of character, another takes another peculiarity. Within the last few years the world has begun to recognize this. _x000d_ The very peculiarity of Hindu women, which they have developed and which is the idea of their life, is that of the mother. If you enter a Hindu's home, you will not find the wife to be the same equal companion of the husband as you find her here. But when you find the mother, she is the very pillar of the Hindu home. The wife must wait to become the mother, and then she will be everything. _x000d_ If one becomes a monk, his father will have to salute him first because he has become a monk and is therefore superior to him. But to his mother he__monk or no monk__will have to go down on his knees and prostrate himself before her. He will then put a little cup of water before her feet, she will dip her toe in it, and he will have to drink of it. A Hindu son gladly does this a thousand times over again! _x000d_ Where the Vedas teach morality, the first words are, "Let the mother be your God" __and that she is. When we talk of woman in India, our idea of woman is mother. The value of women consists in their being mothers of the human race. That is the idea of the Hindu. _x000d_ I have seen my old master taking little girls by the hands, placing them in a chair and actually worshipping them__placing flowers at their feet and prostrating himself before these little children__because they represented the mother God._x000d_ The mother is the God in our family. The idea is that the only real love that we see in the world, the most unselfish love, is in the mother__always suffering, always loving. And what love can represent the love of God more than the love which we see in the mother? Thus the mother is the incarnation of God on earth to the Hindu. _x000d_ "That boy alone can understand God who has been first taught by his mother." I have heard wild stories about the illit¬eracy of our women. Till I was a boy of ten, I was taught by my mother. I saw my grandmother living and my great grandmother living, and I assure you that there never was in my line a female ancestor who could not read or write, or who had to put "her mark" on a paper. If there was a woman who could not read or write, my birth would have been impossible. Caste laws make it imperative. _x000d_ So these are wild stories which I sometimes hear__such as the statement that in the Middle Ages reading and writing were taken away from Hindu women. I refer you to Sir William Hunter's History of the English People, where he cited Indian women who could calculate a solar eclipse. _x000d_ I have been told that either too much worship of the mother makes the mother selfish or too much love of the children from the mother makes them selfish. But I do not believe that. The love which my mother gave to me has made me what I am, and I owe a debt to her that I can never repay._x000d_ Why should the Hindu mother be worshipped? Our philos¬ophers try to find a reason and they come to this definition: We call ourselves the Aryan race. What is an Aryan? He is a man whose birth is through religion. This is a peculiar subject, per¬haps, in this country; but the idea is that a man must be born through religion, through prayers. If you take up our law books you will find chapters devoted to this__the prenatal influence of a mother on the child. _x000d_ I know that before I was born, my mother would fast and pray and do hundreds of things which I could not even do for five minutes. She did that for two years. I believe that whatever religious culture I have, I owe to that. It was consciously that my mother brought me into the world to be what I am. What¬ever good impulse I have was given to me by my mother__and consciously, not unconsciously. _x000d_ "A child materially born is not an Aryan; the child born in spirituality is an Aryan." For all this trouble__because she has to make herself so pure and holy in order to have pure children _x000d_ __she has a peculiar claim on the Hindu child. And the rest [of her traits] is the same with all other nations: she is so unselfish. But the mother has to suffer most in our families. _x000d_ The mother has to eat last. I have been asked many times in your country why the [Hindu] husband does not sit with his wife to eat__if the idea is, perhaps, that the husband thinks she is too low a being. This explanation is not at all right. You know, a hog's hair is thought to be very unclean. A Hindu cannot brush his teeth with the brushes made of it, so he uses the fibre of plants. Some traveller saw one Hindu brushing his teeth with that and then wrote that "a Hindu gets up early in the morning and gets a plant and chews it and swallows it!" Similarly, some have seen the husband and wife not eating together and have made their own explanation. There are so many explainers in this world, and so few observers__as if the world is dying for their explanations! That is why I sometimes think the invention of printing was not an unmixed blessing. The real fact is: just as in your country many things must not be done by ladies before men, so in our country the fact is that it is very indecorous to munch and munch before men. If a lady is eating, she may eat before her brothers. But if the husband comes in, she stops immediately and the husband walks out quickly. We have no tables to sit at, and whenever a man is hungry he comes in and takes his meal and goes out. Do not believe that a Hindu hus¬band does not allow his wife to sit at the table with him. He has no table at all. _x000d_ The first part of the food__when it is ready__belongs to the guests and the poor, the second to the lower animals, the third to the children, the fourth to the husband, and last comes the mother. How many times I have seen my mother going to take her first meal when it was two o'clock. We took ours at ten and she at two because she had so many things to attend to. [For example], someone knocks at the door and says, "Guest", and there is no food except what was for my mother. She would give that to him willingly and then wait for her own. That was her life and she liked it. And that is why we worship mothers as gods. _x000d_ I wish you would like less to be merely petted and patron¬ized and more to be worshipped! [You], a member of the human race!__the poor Hindu does not understand that [inclination of yours]. But when you say, "We are mothers and we command", he bows down. This is the side then that the Hindus have devel¬oped._x000d_ Going back to our theories__people in the West came about one hundred years ago to the point that they must tolerate other religions. But we know now that toleration is not sufficient toward another religion; we must accept it. Thus it is not a question of subtraction, it is a question of addition. The truth is the result of all these different sides added together. Each of all these religions represents one side, the fullness being the addi¬tion of all these. And so in every science, it is addition that is the law. Now the Hindu has developed this side. But will this side be enough? Let the Hindu woman who is the mother become the worthy wife also, but do not try to destroy the mother. That is the best thing you can do. Thus you get a better view of the universe instead of going about all over the world, rushing into different nations and criticizing them and saying, "The horrid wretches__all fit to be barbecued for eternity!" _x000d_ If we take our stand on this position__that each nation un¬der the Lord's will is developing one part of human nature__no nation is a failure. So far they have done well, now they must do better! [Applause] _x000d_ Instead of calling the Hindus "heathens", "wretches", "slaves", go to India and say, "So far your work is wonderful, but that is not all. You have much more to do. God bless you that you have developed this side of woman as a mother. Now help the other side__the wife of men". _x000d_ And similarly, I think (I tell it with the best spirit) that you had better add to your national character a little more of the mother side of the Hindu nature! This was the first verse that I was taught in my life, the first day I went to school: "He indeed is a learned man who looks upon all women as his mother, who looks upon every man's property as so much dust, and looks upon every being as his own soul"._x000d_ There is the other idea of the woman working with the man. It is not that the Hindus had not those ideals, but they could not develop them. _x000d_ It is alone in the Sanskrit language that we find four words meaning husband and wife together. It is only in our marriage that they [both] promise, "What has been my heart now may be thine". It is there that we see that the husband is made to look at the Pole star, touching the hand of his wife and saying, "As the Pole star is fixed in the heavens, so may I be fixed in my affec¬tion to thee". And the wife does the same. _x000d_ Even a woman who is vile enough to go into the streets can sue her husband and have a maintenance. We find the germs of these ideas in all our books throughout our nation, but we were not able to develop that side of the character._x000d_ We must go far beyond sentiment when we want to judge. We know it is not emotion alone that governs the world, but there is something behind emotion. Economic causes, sur¬rounding circumstances and other considerations enter into the development of nations. (It is not in my present plan to go into the causes that develop woman as wife.) So in this world, as each nation is placed under peculiar cir¬cumstances and is developing its own type, the day is coming when all these different types will be mixed up__when that vile sort of patriotism which means "rob everybody and give to me" will vanish. Then there will be no more one sided development in the whole world, and each one of these [nations] will see that they had done right. _x000d_ Let us now go to work and mix the nations up together and let the new nation come. _x000d_ Will you let me tell you my conviction? Much of the civi¬lization that comprises the world today has come from that one peculiar race of mankind__the Aryans. _x000d_ [Aryan] civilization has been of three types: the Roman, the Greek, the Hindu. The Roman type is the type of organization, conquest, steadiness__but lacking in emotional nature, appreci-ation of beauty and the higher emotions. Its defect is cruelty. The Greek is essentially enthusiastic for the beautiful, but frivolous and has a tendency to become immoral. The Hindu type is essentially metaphysical and religious, but lacking in all the elements of organization and work._x000d_ The Roman type is now represented by the Anglo Saxon; the Greek type more by the French than by any other nation; and the old Hindus do not die! Each type has its advantage in this new land of promise. They have the Roman's organization, the power of the Greek's wonderful love for the beautiful, and the Hindu's backbone of religion and love of God. Mix these up together and bring in the new civilization. _x000d_ And let me tel

Curious Customs of India_x000d_ _x000d_ Miss Armstrong, a missionary to India, gave an interesting account of the customs of that country, last night, in the Warren-avenue Baptist Church. Thousands of children, said the speaker, are scarified every year in the interests of heathendom, and as an offering, that the gods may send rain during the dry season. Miss Armstrong is in this country for the purpose of completing her medical education, when she will return to India to establish a home for outcast women in India. This evening in the vestry of the Warren-avenue Church, Miss Armstrong will speak exclusively to women.

Cambridge_x000d_ 21st December, 1894_x000d_ Dear Sister {Mary Hale},_x000d_ I had not anything from you since your last. I am going away next Tuesday to New York. You must have received Mrs. Bull's letter in the meanwhile. If you cannot accept it, I shall be very glad to come over any day--I have time now as the lectures are at an end, except Sunday next._x000d_ Yours ever affectionately,_x000d_ Vivekananda

To Mrs. G. W. Hale_x000d_ [Cambridge, Mass._x000d_ 21 December 1894]_x000d_ Dear Mother,_x000d_ I am glad that Haridas Viharidas has sent the rugs. I am afraid they will take a long time to reach here. The Raja was very much pleased with the phonograph, as he writes, and has heard my voice several times. Hope he will bring it into life._x000d_ I have not seen Sister Mary yet, but hope to see her this week as I am going away to New York next Tuesday. Cannot come by any means to Chicago now, for I expect to go to Washington from New York and hope to be pretty busy in New York. _x000d_ If I can snatch up a few days between the lecture in Brook¬lyn on the 30th and the next series in New York, I will fly to Chicago for a few days. If I had time just now, it would have been better for me, for the half fare ticket will expire after this month._x000d_ I have been kept very busy here this month so could not go to Boston even for a day. Now I have time and hope to see Sis¬ter Mary. How are the babies at home? Mrs. M. Adams of Chicago, who lectures on voice building and walking etc., has been lec¬turing here all this time. She is a very great lady in every respect and so intelligent. She knows all of you and likes the "Hale girls" very much. Sister Isabel[le] knows her especially, I think._x000d_ Do not you see, Mother__I am determined to work my project out. I must see the light. India can cheer alone__but no money. In the East and South I am getting slowly friends who will help me in my work, I am sure, as they have done already. They all like me more and more._x000d_ I have made friends of Lady Somerset and Miss Willard, you will be glad to know. So you see, Mother, you are the only attraction in Chicago; and so long I am in this country, wher¬ever you live is my home. As soon as I have time I will run in to see you and the sisters. But I have no other hopes in the West; nor will you advise me to destroy the only hope I have of success in these parts of the country by giving it up and going to Chicago to be idle as the day is long._x000d_ Mrs. Bull and a few other ladies here who are helping me on are not only sincere and love me but they have the power to do as leaders of society. Would that you had millions._x000d_ With my love to you all,_x000d_ Your ever affectionate Son,_x000d_ Vivekananda

On December 21 Swamiji also informed Mary Hale that he ,as going on Christmas Day to New York, after giving an unscheduled lecture in Cambridge on Sunday, December 23.

Swamiji had Found an immense difference between the intellectual and religious climate of the generally orthodox and conservative Middle West and the liberal, fermenting East Coast; he had, indeed, found in New York and Boston the natural centers Of his work--centers where people eagerly listened to his ideas, some with intellectual interest only, per¬haps, but others with a deeper need to absorb and understand the incalculably great gift he had brought to the West.

The three weeks or so that Swamiji spent at Mrs. Bull's were full and important ones. According to the program of Morning Talks, he lectured on Monday, December 10, on "The Vedanta Philosophy" and on the following Monday (December 17) on "The Rajpoot Women and Ideals of Motherhood in India." In addition he gave a third formal lecture-possibly on Sunday, December 23.

But these three lectures were the least of Swamiji's work in Cambridge. He plunged, evidently at once, into the absorbed, uninterrupted delivery of two classes daily, again teaching Vedanta with the same unbroken intensity as at Greenacre. And his listeners were as eager.

In addition to his classes, the Swami gave three formal talks at Mrs. Bull's house, one of which was on "The Ideals of Indian Women". This lecture, given at Mrs. Bull's special request, was deep, stirring and patriotic. It dwelt on the beauty of character and the ideals of Indian womanhood in general and the idea of Indian motherhood in particular. It was as well, though unconsciously, a reply to the remarks that many ignorant or self-interested persons had circulated concerning the "degraded" condition of Indian women.

U.S.A._x000d_ 26th December, 1894_x000d_ Dear Blessed and Beloved {Alasinga Perumal},_x000d_ . . . In reference to me every now and then attacks are made in missionary papers (so I hear), but I never care to see them. If you send any of those made in India, I should throw them into the wastepaper basket. A little agitation was necessary for our work. We have had enough. Pay no more attention to what people say about me, whether good or bad. You go on with your work and remember that "Never one meets with evil who tries to do good" (Gita, VI. 40)._x000d_ Every day the people here are appreciating me. And between you and me, I am more of an influence here than you dream of. Everything must proceed slowly. . . . I have written to you before, and I write again, that I shall not pay heed to any criticism or praise in the newspapers. They are consigned to the fire. Do you do the same. Pay no attention whatsoever to newspaper nonsense or criticism. Be sincere and do your duty. Everything will come all right. Truth must triumph. . . ._x000d_ Missionary misrepresentations should be beneath your notice. . . . Perfect silence is the best refutation to them, and I wish you to maintain the same. . . . Make Mr. Subrahmanya Iyer the President of your Society. He is one of the sincerest and noblest men I know; and in him, intellect and emotion are beautifully blended. Push on in your work, without counting much on me; work on your own account. . . . As for me, I do not know when I shall go back; I am working here and in India as well. . . ._x000d_ With my love to you all,_x000d_ Yours ever with blessings,_x000d_ Vivekananda

At the end of these three weeks Mrs. Bull wrote to Dr. Lewis G. Janes, telling him something of Swamiji's classes and their effect on those who had heard them. The following letter, which is one of the best sources of information We have at the present time regarding these Cambridge weeks, was found among the papers of Dr. Janes and has been made available to us by his daughter, Mrs. Marcia Lyttle:

Cambridge _x000d_ Riverview Dec 27th 1894_x000d_ 168 Brattle Street_x000d_ My dear Dr. Janes,_x000d_ I wish I might hear The Swami Vivekananda Sunday Ev'g under your auspices (at the Brooklyn Ethical As¬sociation]. We have had him with us three weeks and he has given two lessons daily and three formal Talks. The lessons have included the 8 Upanishads, several readings from the Gita and from Sankara's books of Realization. The interest awakened has been very unusual and the effect is to be deep and permanent with many. We have urged him always to give the positive side of his Vedanta Philosophy whatever topic was given him; for he can always lead up to that, and the dignity, beauty and strength of his own nature is always brought out when he treats of that. A friend asked him to address her club of women on that topic. He was urged on his return to con¬tinue the subject. The membership of one hundred was increased by one hundred & fifty guests and a hall taken. Roman Catholics, Swedenborgians, Agnostics & Episcopalians all paid him the tribute of expressing their best thought and he has helped students who were bewildered by their course of Philosophy at Harvard._x000d_ I mention all this because I hope you will find if he treats his subject sincerely that he may prove of help to you. We have had a Greenacre Annex--Seven lectures with classes-Lady Somerset, Miss Willard [who one morning spoke in conjunction with Lady Somerset], Mrs. Milward Adams of Chicago (one of the most gifted women I have ever known) Prof. Fenollosa & Vivekananda. Miss Thursby has given us her voice on each occasion. The Greenacre spirit prevailed. We would have been so pleased and helped could you have joined us. Your letter was most welcome and the Reunion a success._x000d_ Miss Farmer had been house-mother and we have had our lecturers as guests, and each has studied with the other. Mr. Vive Kananda as a guest and friend has endeared himself to all. He is so very human and so much of a boy with it all._x000d_ Believe me with Sincere regards._x000d_ Sara C. Bull