Mrs. Bull's letter to Sturdy to which Goodwin refers is not today available, and we cannot guess what it proposed. In any event, with an authority that Swamiji had evidently given her, she consented to Goodwin's hair-raisingly disobedient (but, as it turned out, not injudicious) cable advising Sturdy to "use all publications except Raja.”*_x000d_ * In a complex business letter to Mr. Sturdy, written after Goodwin’s cable had been sent off, Mrs. Bull indicated her authorization of it. “My understanding is this,” she wrote: your letter of inquiry concerning the motives and methods of the N.Y. Committee with the title pages of your English Pamphlets marked “suppressed” was forwarded to me from New York. To facilitate your arrangements a cable, I understand, was sent releasing all but the Raja, which seemed to me advisable at the time” (Sara Bull to E.T. Sturdy, undated, SCB).

In an extended postscript to his letter of April 11, Mr. Goodwin assured Mrs. Bull that while he would not "openly criticise [Miss Waldo] again" (as he had resolved in his letter of April 10), he still had his "ideas of how things should be." "And I shall always," he wrote, "when the power is in my hands, follow my best judgement, wherever possible, with the added force & light of the opinions of others, but without giving the possibility of offense by open criticism” (It was a resolve he would have occasion to remember in later months.)

No one seems to have informed her about the fate of the raja yoga manuscript; nor does she seem now to have been speaking (or writing) directly to Mrs. Bull. Instead, she addressed a letter, dated May 19, to Mrs. Bull's secretary-companion, Miss Elizabeth Hamlen, and thus indirectly spoke her mind to the head of the Publication Committee-more with sorrow, one feels, than with rancor._x000d_ I cannot tell you [she wrote] anything about the Raja Yoga, beyond the fact that the lessons of this year were most carefully prepared for publication & were all ready to be printed about the 10th March. I believe the manuscript has gone to Eng. It may get into print sometime, but I have my doubts. Meantime, Mr Sturdy's little book is better than nothing, & I would be glad to have it circulated. I have no definite information about it however. Fortunately we still have the notes of the lessons & if no public use is made of them, we can have typewritten copies made for the subscribers. I expect that will be the final outcome. People will have got over wanting the Raja book & have turned their attention to some new subject by next Fall, & that is as early as the book can now be put on the market. Right after the Swami's classes closed, there was an active demand for the book & it would have had a ready sale, but you know yourself how soon a thing is forgotten.

The story of the publication of Raja-Yoga now moves its center to England, where we shall come upon it in the following chapter. Let us here return to March 30, 1896, when Swamiji, his Boston work completed, left for Chicago.

The Swami's health was not good during his stay in Chicago, and by the time he returned to New York in mid April of 1896, he was physically worn out. He had worked to the point of exhaustion. Indeed, sometimes, after he had made a railway journey, it seemed for days as though the wheels of the train revolved with their noise in his brain; and though his head was always clear, at times he grew exceedingly nervous. The strain of the years of his Sadhana in the East and teaching in the West had been too much for him. His friends who knew that he had given himself wholly and unstintedly for the good of those who made his message the gospel of their lives, could not help seeing the cost to his body. As Mrs. Funke had noted in Detroit, "it was even then to be seen that he was not long for this world." And, as a matter of fact, slowly but surely his body was failing. He himself was aware that it could hardly bear such long continuing and excessive strain, and in a number of letters of this period he made reference to this fact. On March 23, 1896 he wrote from Boston to Alasinga Perumal: "I am going to England next month. I am afraid I have worked too much; my nerves are almost shattered by this long continued work. I don't want you to sympathize, but only I write this so that you may not expect much from me now. Work on, the best way you can. I have very little hope of being able to do great things now. I am glad, however, that a good deal of literature has been created by taking down stenographic notes of my lectures. Four books are ready…. Well, I am satisfied that I have tried my best to do good, and shall have a clear conscience when I retire from work and sit down in a cave."

But of all stories there were two which he relished most and which sent him into fits of laughter: one was of a new Christian missionary to a cannibal tribe, and the other of the "darky" clergyman, preaching on "Creation". As to the former: There was once a Christian missionary newly arrived in a far-off island inhabited by cannibals. He proceeded to the chief of the place and asked him, "Well, how did you like my predecessor?" The reply was, "He was delicious." And as for the "darky" preacher: He was shouting out, "Yo' see, God was makin' Adam, and he was makin' 'im out o' mud. And when he got 'im made, he stuck 'im up agin a fence to dry. An' then." "Hold on dere, preacher," suddenly cried out a learned listener. "What about dat dere fence? Who make dat fence?" The preacher replied sharply, "Now you listen 'ere, Sam Jones, don' you be gwine to ask dem questions. Youse'll smash up all theology."

Great souls are not always serious. This power of complete relaxation was as much a part of the Swami's greatness as were his intellectual powers and spiritual realizations. One would like to know the personal temperament, the personal incident, the human side of a teacher as well as his words of revelation. Those who live in the personal environment of great men love them for their human qualities, and it was so with the disciples and admirers of Swami Vivekananda. They made every effort to divert his mind and found that the diversion made him deliver his message all the clearer. Several of his most intimate friends, persons of positions and wealth in the Western world, understood his need for rest and recreation, and invited him to spend short holidays at their residences. There he was allowed absolute personal freedom. Did he desire to talk; they would listen with rapt attention. Did he desire to sing the song of his own land, he could do so freely. If he sat in silent abstraction they left him to his mood. There were times when he would break the silence of days in a rhapsody of divine eloquence, and then again he would talk on matters that required no mental concentration. After giving some lecture that throbbed with spiritual power and realization, he would often dance in glee saying, "Thank God, it is over!" He would come down unexpectedly from the mountaintops of insight to the levels of childlike simplicity in a moment.

With those in the West with whom he was particularly free, he would say frankly whatever came into his mind. He called them oftentimes by familiar names, as he did Mr. and Mrs. Hale, whom he styled "Father Pope" and "Mother Church"; another he called "Yum" or "Jojo", and so on. When his friends prepared some delicious recipe he would look pleadingly at it, his eyes beaming with joy—and then he would eat with his fingers as he was wont to do in India, saying that he liked to do so and that he enjoyed it more that way. At first it was shocking to the Westerners, but when they understood, it gave them pleasure to let him have his own way. They would be especially amused when in the privacy of their homes he would take off his collar and throw off the boots which made him uncomfortable and slip his feet into a pair of house-slippers, and as to starched cuffs, they were an abomination in his eyes. The sannyasi nature in him would resent at times all conventions and etiquette. His indifference to money was characteristic. It is told by his American disciples how he would often look with dread upon money he had received from friends for his own use and would give it away freely to the poor or to those in need. Or it might be that he would immediately purchase presents for his friends and disciples, as was the case at Thousand Island Park when he was given a handsome purse at the end of his class work. The whole sum was spent in this way.

if he did not receive it, he shook himself free. He could not tolerate to be patronized, and when a certain woman of wealth endeavoured to make him do as she desired in matters of plans and arrangements, he disrupted them all. She would be irritated for the time being and then later say of him laughingly and lovingly, "At the last moment he upsets all my plans for him. He must have his own way. He is just like a mad bull in a chinashop." While he would go to any length in matters of service or loyalty, he never allowed anyone to compel him to do anything. And he certainly displayed won-derful patience with some who attempted to manage his work, for in spite of personal irritation he believed them to be instruments of the Lord in the furthering of His cause. Otherwise, his first impulse would be to throw them overboard. He could not tolerate restraint.

There were times when he would say, "Oh! The body is a terrible bondage!" or "How I wish that I could hide myself for ever!" and it would seem to all as though the spirit in him were chained in agony to the fetters of the flesh. Such moments often came to him, as for example, when he wrote his poems "My Play Is Done" and "The Song of the Sannyasin"; and here and there in scores of his letters this divine restlessness is evident. To cite his words from a letter dated January 25, 1896 to Mrs. Bull: _x000d_ I have a notebook which has travelled with me all over the world. I find therein these words written seven years ago: "Now to seek a corner and lay myself down to die!" Yet all this Karma remained. I hope I have worked it out. _x000d_ It appears like a hallucination that I was in these childish dreams of doing this and doing that. I am getting out of them.... Perhaps these mad desires were necessary to bring me over to this country. And I thank the Lord for the experience. _x000d_ When his disciples found him in such moods, they feared that the hour of deliverance might come suddenly and the body drop. So they rejoiced to see him in his lighter moods.

On a certain occasion he went to the house of one of his admirers and, with that unique sense of freedom and frankness which was his, asked to be allowed to cook an Indian meal. The request was immediately granted, and then, to the amusement of everyone present, he gathered from his pockets some score or more of tiny packets filled with finely ground condiments and spices. These had been sent all the way from India, and wherever he went these packets went with him. At one time, one of his choicest and most prized possessions was a bottle of chutney some gentleman had thoughtfully sent him from Madras. His Western disciples delighted to have him cook his own dishes in their kitchens. They helped also in this,' and thus time would pass by in merriment and making new experiments. He would make the dishes so hot with spices that they were not palatable to Western taste, and many times the preparations took so long that when the food was ready to be served the party was literally ravenous. Then there would be much talk and laughter, and he would take the keenest delight in seeing how the Western tongue stood the hot-spiced dishes of distant India. They were, no doubt, soothing to his high-strung temperament and tired nerves, but certainly not "good for his liver" as he insisted they were. This human side of the Swami bound his disciples to him in deep human love.

Nothing he enjoyed so much at times as to be seated cozily near a fire in winter-time and plunge into reminiscences of his early days. Or he would spend the morning or evening in reading comic papers and magazines from cover to cover. As for the newspapers, he betrayed the reporter's instinct by reading only the headlines. Such things were his diversion; but at any moment the saint and prophet in him might emerge. One disciple who could not understand him at first, having been in his presence only in his times of recreation, was one day suddenly made conscious of the Swami's true nature. The Swami was enjoying himself heartily, but when the disciple asked him a question concerning religion, his countenance instantly changed; fun gave place to the revelation of the _x000d_ # _x000d_ highest spiritual truths. "It seemed", the disciple later said, "as though the Swami had of a sudden cast aside the layer of that consciousness in which he had been enjoying himself and made me aware of other layers behind the network of changing personality." But it was more than the power to transfigure his consciousness suddenly from fun to holiness and Jnana that he manifested. He was actually possessed of a dual consciousness. While he might he playing, as it were, on the surface of his personality, one was made aware at the same moment of the mighty flow of the immense depths beneath.

According to his disciples: "Each hour of the day there would be some new idea, some new human sweetness, some illuminating thought on the vastness of the soul and, the divinity of man, some new, boundless hope, some startling original plan that, would radiate from his personality." One disciple said, "Simply to walk on the city streets with him meant to be translated to marvellous worlds of thought or power suddenly from the sheerest fun." Still another records, "He always made one feel that he was all spirit and not body, and this in spite of the fact that his magnificent physical frame irresistibly attracted the attention of everyone." All his friends recognized in him "a grand Seigneur", as Mrs. Francis Leggett so aptly remarked. This lady also said, "In all my experience I have met but two celebrated personages that could make one feel perfectly at case without themselves for an instant losing their own dignity one the German Emperor, the other, Swami Vivekananda." Truly he was, as the American papers spoke of him, "the Lordly Monk". And on occasions, this innate majesty of the Swami could assume almost super-human proportions. In the words of a disciple.. _x000d_ It would be impossible for me to describe the overwhelming force of Swamiji's presence. He could rivet attention upon himself: and when he spoke in all seriousness and intensity though it seems wellnigh incredible there were some among his hearers who were literally exhausted. The subtlety of his thoughts and arguments swept them off their feet. In one case I know of a man who was forced to rest in bed for three days as the result of a nervous shock received by a discussion with the Swami. His personality was at once awe-inspiring and sublime. He had the faculty of literally annihilating one if he so chose.

On many an occasion he would draw out one who differed from him. Only to bewilder and confuse him. And yet those who were thus "prostrated by that radiant power" were the very ones who attested most to his sweetness. They said, he was “a marvellous combination of sweetness and irresistible force, verify a child and a prophet in one". Many are the descriptions of his ideas and personality at this period; indeed, if they all were recorded they would of themselves constitute a complete volume.

On many an occasion he would draw out one who differed from him. Only to bewilder and confuse him. And yet those who were thus "prostrated by that radiant power" were the very ones who attested most to his sweetness. They said, he was “a marvellous combination of sweetness and irresistible force, verify a child and a prophet in one". Many are the descriptions of his ideas and personality at this period; indeed, if they all were recorded they would of themselves constitute a complete volume.

All through his American work the Swami's mind was full of plans. From the first it was his intention, when he had once gained a learned and extensive hearing and established his mission on solid basis, to found a "Temple Universal", as he styled it, wherein should congregate, in harmony, all the religious sects of the world, worshipping but one symbol, "OM", which represents the Absolute. But his intense, all-absorbing work in founding his own Vedanta movement prevented him from carrying out this noble ideal. Still another plan, about which he had written to Mrs. Bull in the beginning of the year 1895, was to purchase land in the Catskill Mountains to the extent of one hundred and eight acres, where his students could go for Sadhana during summer holidays and build camps or cottages as they liked, until permanent buildings could be erected. He said that he would himself contribute the funds to buy the land.

Since we have related in an earlier chapter and in some detail the slanders that were heaped upon the Swami by self-seeking and malicious people, we should mention here that by 1896 most of his detractors had been silenced and his reputation as a religious teacher of absolute purity and unparalleled integrity had been established. True, now and then he was still attacked but he well knew that he had little cause to feel either himself or his work seriously harmed. Indeed, the only occasion during this period that he was really incensed was when photograph of his Master was printed in one of the leading papers of Detroit, together with slurring comments upon his appearance and upon Hinduism and Hindu yogis in general. Then he was heard to exclaim, "Oh! This is BLASPHEMY!" In striking contrast to such unpleasantness, reports of his teaching and of its influence came Pouring in from every quarter. He was reverenced and loved by some of the finest minds in the land, and prominent men and women in all fields of thought scientists, artists, philosophers respected him. Even before his public reception at Harvard University in 1896 he had, as we have seen earlier, been received privately in September of 1894 by some members of the University faculty and by many of the graduate students of philosophy. Following close upon this, Columbia University offered him the chair of Sanskrit, but being a sannyasi, this honour he declined.

It was at this time that the Swami met the distinguished Professor, William James of Harvard at dinner at the residence of Mrs Ole Bull. After dinner the Swami and the Professor drew together in earnest and subdued conversation. It was mid- night when they rose from their long discourse. Eager to know the result of the meeting of these two great minds, Mrs Bull asked "Well, Swami how did you like Professor James?’’ He replied, in a sort of abstracted way, "A very nice man, a very nice man!" laying emphasis c. the word nice. The next day the Swami handed a letter to Mrs Bull with the casual remark, "You may be interested in this." Mrs Bull read and to her amazement saw that Professor James, in inviting the Swami to meet him at his own residence for dinner a few days later, had addressed him as "Master". The tribute Professor James’s regard for the Swami is evinced, on many occasions, in his writings, and he speaks of him deferentially as "that paragon of Vedantists", in connection with monistic mysticism in his book Pragmatism. He also quotes from the Swami's Raja.-yoga and Jnana-Yoga in the Varieties of Religious Experience. In his celebrated essay, "The Energies of Man", he speaks of a university professor who underwent the Raja-Yoga practices as a cure for nervous disorders, and who received thereby not only physical benefits, but intellectual and spiritual illumination as well. There were many who believed that in this essay Professor James was describing his own experiences of the Raja-Yoga practices as instructed by the Swami.

Indeed, the Swami never sought fame and honour; on the contrary, his fearless utterance of truth often alienated that general approval for which so many public workers slave, and to win which they sacrifice their true views and principles. World Teacher that he was, he never hesitated to speak openly to the Americans of what he felt were the drawbacks of their civilization. It so happened that he once spoke in Boston before a large audience gathered to hear him on "My Master". Full of the fire of renunciation, when he saw before him the audience composed, for the most part, of worldly-minded men and women lacking in spiritual sympathy and earnestness, he felt that it would be a desecration to speak to them of his understanding of, and his real feelings of devotion for, Shri Ramakrishna. So, instead, he launched out on a terrible denunciation of the vulgar physical and materialistic ideas which underlay the whole of Western civilization. Hundreds of people left the hall abruptly, but in no way affected, he went on to the end. The next morning the papers were filled with varying reports—some highly favourable, others severely critical in their analysis of what he had said, but all commenting on his fearlessness, sincerity, and frankness. When he himself read the report of his lecture, he was stung with remorse. He wept bitterly for having denounced others and said. "My Master could not see the evil side of a man. He had nothing but love even for his worst vilifiers. It is nothing short of sacrilege on my part to abuse others and wound their feelings while speaking about my Master. Really, I have not understood Shri Ramakrishna and am totally unfit to speak about him!" But that he ever denounced American women, as some of his bitter antagonists have said, is a gross libel. The Swami's own words live to testify to his high opinion of them and to his sincere gratitude for the uniform kindness they had shown him.

It was inevitable that the Swami had enemies, for his purpose was not to placate world-thought but to lift it, and in this purpose he never temporized. In less than two and a half years of work in the United States, he had made a profound and indelible impression on the American mind; he had broken the back of the malignant and deep-rooted bigotry that had existed toward India and Hinduism; he had spread his Master's message throughout a large part of the nation; he had set thousands of people thinking; he had given them the courage to break loose from old, meaningless forms of religion; and he had enabled them to discover the harmonizing essence of religion itself in the eternal truths of Vedanta. He had devoted his concentrated and illumined thought to the formulation of those truths, so that the modern Western mind could grasp them and adapt them to its scientific and rationalistic culture; he had taken endless pains to teach a few disciples with great intensity, as well as to sow his message liberally over the land. He had bestowed upon hundreds, perhaps thousands, the in-comparable and invaluable gift of spiritual awakening, and he had left behind a distilled legacy of literature that has today taken its place among the great religious works of the world.

As time goes on, more and more details of Swami Vivekananda's life and work during his first visit to the West are being discovered, and perhaps dozens of his lectures, 'now unknown, will some day come to light. But whether or not research uncovers every detail of his days during this period, the substance of his work in America was not, and never can be, lost; on the contrary, it has become a dynamic spiritual heritage of the nation. Surveying the history of his work, one sees the Swami moving through the West as some mighty and resplendent light. A Plato in thought, a modern Savonarola in his fearless outspokenness, adored as a Master and as a Prophet, he moved among his disciples as some great Bodhisattva. Some looked upon him as a Rishi of the Upanishads, some as a Shankaracharya, others even as a Buddha, or a Christ, and all regarded him as the embodiment of Highest Consciousness, as one speaking with authority, having realized the Divinity he preached. His hands raised in continual benediction, his voce murmuring or thundering the Gospel of Vedanta, his face beaming with love and goodwill, Swami Vivekananda lives in the memory of America as the man with message, “one who walked with God”.

He had by now read Mr. Sturdy's outraged letters of March 29 and 31 and at once turned them over to Mr. Goodwin, who, in turn, promptly forwarded them to Mrs. Bull, together apparently, with Sturdy's proof for his `Raja Yoga" pamphlet. The publisher, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., was a branch of the famous Luzac & Co., Oriental Publishers. It was enough to give one pause. In his covering letter Goodwin wrote:_x000d_ I enclose herewith letters from Mr. Sturdy which the Swami who arrived this evg-has handed me. They are rather disturbing. Simpkin, Marshall & Co. are equal probably to Longmans in their way as publishers, which you no doubt know, & it seems an extreme pity that the work should have been interfered with. Miss Waldo was present when the Swami handed me the letters & I showed her the proofs with that firms imprints. She must have realised her mistake then, & I believe did so-& is sorry for it. I did not show her the letters. There is no use in perpetuating the ill-feeling-but I showed them to Mr. Goodyear afterwards. I suggested to the Swami cabling Mr Sturdy as follows-Use all publications except Raja¬ Vivekananda-but he thought not. I think, however, we should do so without referring to him again. I was going to do it on my own responsibility but would rather ask you-What do you think of it? If you approve I should be glad if you will write me on receipt of this, & I will do so at once. Mr. Sturdy will have your letter by now, &. This, with the cable, would make him feel secure.

On April 11, saying nothing of his delayed arrival in New York, Mrs. Bull wrote a bon-voyage letter to Swamiji that speaks of her growing reverence for him. He was placing the American work in her hands, and it was with a certain diffidence that she accepted this position, knowing as she did by now that he did not gladly suffer interference. Her letter read in part:

Your winter's work will be to very many a sure and good foundation. Whatever it has cost you, you may rest assured of it. And, if you go on to India from England, you may ever count upon the love and faithfulness of your students here, who will realize more and more the truth of the principles as the years go by. ._x000d_ You will know always that any service you will ask of me will be a pleasure. And that at any time any transference of any trust from me to another whom you may choose as better suited to the moment of the task, you will determine and I will understand._x000d_ I mentioned to Mr. Sturdy your suggestion that I should be in London for a time, as a politeness to him who stands for your work there. I am to be possibly needed here at home, I cannot yet tell. There is always one best place for us, and I have learned not to ask or choose._x000d_ Always my best wishes and my grateful thanks for your true friendship and service.

Swamiji arrived in New York on Saturday, April 11, "I met the Swami at the depot this evening," Mr. Goodwin wrote to Mrs. Bull, "and had a long talk with him afterwards. He was much pleased, in every way, with his work in Chicago & enjoyed the journey back. This letter continued at some length, and to judge from its tone, Mr. Goodwin had returned from his visit with Mrs. Bull imbued with a managing spirit. He had gotten on well in Cambridge. "We enjoyed Mr. Goodwin's visit," Mrs. Bull would write to Swamiji. "He worked hard all the time. He made friends of all my family. Pleased with this dedicated young man, she had, it would seem, made him her deputy in connection with Swamiji's work. Of this arrangement he wrote to her in his letter of April 11 ; after expressing his disapproval of what he felt to be Miss Waldo's non-Vedantic attitude toward Mr. Sturdy's publishing proj¬ects, he continued:

I lay no claim to being an ideal Vedantist, & I almost think it is as well that I am not. It strikes me more forcibly every day that some one individual must, either from taste, or as a personal sacrifice, be content & willing to take over the fighting part of the work which it is impossible to eliminate from any movement. . . . The Vedanta' will never be made a living thing but to a very few, without the element of business in its propagation, & as far as I am able I am willing & anxious to take this work, where no one else will, altho I must confess I wd rather be without it.

He went on to say that Swamiji had "a cheque for $125 from Chicago which he had given into my charge" and that he (Swamiji) "will also draw $200 from the bank to-morrow, which I think he had sent from England." "I intend," he wrote firmly, "to get a draft on Cook's with this, as I have heard here that while in Boston he gave away a large sum of money, quite haphazard-over $300 I believe, & I am determined to stop this indiscriminate giving-I am doing this with Mr. Leggett's approval.”

(From a practical point of view, Mr. Goodwin's resolve was understandable. To appreciate it, one need only remember that three hundred dollars was then equivalent to a laborer's wage for a year, to the earnings of a seamstress working long hours for over three years, or, again, to three times the amount Swamiji received in New York for holding six classes in the Fifth Avenue home of a friend. Swamiji, of course, did not so calculate. But while he gave to whoever had need, the word indiscriminate seems hardly to apply. Nor was he dupable. He had, it is true, been cheated right and left when he first came to America, but he had soon learned to recognize both pred¬ator and prey. In March of 1895 he could write to Isabelle MeKindley that the good and credulous metaphysician Mrs. Peake was most likely being "played upon" by a confidence man, the fiery Miss Locke being equally taken in. "This is a wonderful country for cheating," he wrote, "and 99.9 per cent have some motive in the background to take advantage of others. If anyone just but closes his eyes for a moment, he is gone! ! . . . I have been so well handled by the people here that I look round me for hours before I take a step. Swamiji would always give away his money as freely as he gave his blessings, but it was no longer taken from him-at least not often.)

Miss Waldo was discussing Boston with me nearly the whole of yesterday, & took a very decided course with regard to myself. She claims that I was in everything only a tool to yourself. I asked her to remember that I had not varied one atom in Boston from the views I had expressed to her in New York previously on the two main points (I) Mr Sturdy (2) The necessity of care in her personal relations with the Swami- for his sake. These enclosures from Mr Sturdy prove my attitude on that point to have been the correct one, while the other matter can only be left to personal & individual taste. I have always asked her if the proper way to regard Mr Sturdy's use of the pamphlets & lecture matter generally was not as for the Vedanta as a whole, & whether we were practically applying Vedanta in claiming for one section of Vedantists, as against another, proprietary rights in educational matter which is of as much importance to one as the other & vice versa-merely because one section had found the means & the other had not?

It was, in actual fact, Mr. Sturdy who had found a better means of publishing Swamiji's works than had the Americans. Because of this, not because of the lofty idealism with which Mr. Goodwin had belabored Miss Waldo, the project of publishing Raja-Yoga in America was stopped. There was some idea now of bringing out the book in England, and Professor William James was to be approached (by Mrs. Bull and Goodwin) for a preface.

The Swami is delighted at the idea of Prof. James' preface [Goodwin wrote to Mrs. Bull on April 15]. He is anxious that Raja shall be got through as soon as possible now. Do you think Prof James could criticize it & write this without delay, so that it might follow us to England at earliest?

Monday evening "he gave a brief talk to the members of his New York class [who had gathered, one guesses, at the home of Miss Mary Phillips) on the chief principles of the Vedanta and its prospects in America. This talk is most unfortunately not available today; we learn only a very little of it from a letter written on May 3, 1896, to Swamiji's brother disciples in India by a number of New York students and friends. (This letter and that to which it was a reply are given in full in Appendix C.) The pertinent paragraph read:_x000d_ The Swami Vivekananda sailed for England on the 15th of April. In his farewell address to his friends and pupils in New York, he spoke highly of the Americans, and the freedom of their institutions, which made them peculiarly accessible to the Vedanta Philosophy.

(Only a few days after Swamiji's friends had composed this letter, he himself was writing from England to Mary Hale in praise of America: "I love the Yankee land. . . . In America is the place, the people, the opportunity for everything. And a month later, "In America alone there is that something in the sir which brings out whatever is best in everyone. The spirit, the facts of freedom, of equality, of self reliance, of youth and vitality were, Swamiji felt, essential ingredients of the soil in which the Vedanta philosophy could best flourish, not as an intellectual exercise merely, but as an everyday way of life. While he was well aware of the soul-swamping materialism of American culture, he saw also-and this with delight-those qualities peculiarly American that both reflected the divine in man and conspired toward its unfoldment. "You may be astonished to hear," he would later say in a lecture in Lahore, "that as practical Vedantists the Americans are better than we are. Indeed, the ripe potential for spiritual development in the American character was perhaps why he had come to this country; it was, certainly, why he had stayed.)

On February 22, 1896, in celebration of Sri Ramakrishna's birthday, Swamiji's New York students sent a telegram to the Swamis at Alambazar Math. Although the telegram itself is no longer extant, its message was no doubt one of reverence and salutation and told (an American newspaper reported) of the rapid progress of the Hindu religion here. Swami Ramakrishnananda replied:

(To the Students of Swami Vivekananda)_x000d_ _x000d_ Baranagore Alambazar Matt_x000d_ 26-2-96 _x000d_ _x000d_ My dear friends_x000d_ Your telegram of the 22nd inst. duly reached us just at the time when we were engaged in giving a parting feast to one of our brothers Swami Saradananda, who was on the point of starting for Eng. as desired by the leader of the present unique movement tending to bring about the brotherhood of the whole human race, who is now amongst you instilling his broad & universal doctrine of "assimilation but no destruction", "harmony & peace & no dissension." That the sudden & unexpected appearance of a news redolent with the ambrosia of love & affection increased hundredfold the solemnity & unmixed joy that reigned in our Monastery at that time is too apparent to be mentioned. It reached us at a time when our hearts were filled with a love that had for its field of action nothing short of the entire expanse of this world of ours & everything that is in it. Your salutatory note therefore served to animate with fresh vigour the already animated feeling of universal love stirred within us on the occasion._x000d_ Swami Saradananda started for Eng. to take his quarters with Mr. Sturdy in the str. Rewa of BISN line & to help Swami Vivekananda in his stupendous labours consequent upon propagating his gospel of love & charity. This new Swami, if it be the desire of his leader at a future date to transfer him to your quarters, is sure to gain your hearts in no time, not of course by those dazzling faculties which especially mark out Vivekananda as a power among nations, but by his sweet & amiable character, diffusing peace & love wherever he goes. In him you will find a man who is void of all the vanities of the world. He is sure to carry out the onerous duty laid upon him with great credit. [Swami Vivekananda's] indefatigable energy, the immense moral power that can easily surmount the gloomy & unfriendly environments, the keen intellect that can pen¬etrate the deepest veil of what to others appears as mystic &. altogether uncomprehensible, a heart which is the storehouse of love & affection for his fellowmen, a sweet voice & an expressive & amiable countenance, which are the fit agents to bring forth the sweet sentiments hidden under the bosom, all these contribute to make the great revivalist of this highly advanced age, Swami Vivekananda, a fit agent of the Deity whose direct hand is his principal, nay his only stay, in a troublous sea of insincerity & private interests. That he has taken & upheld the cause of Truth, that his heart flows with the sincerest love for his fellowmen, that his extraordinary power, coupled with the divine grace is a sure sign of his ultimate success, are facts which none but the most blinded of bigots can deny. This auspicious telegram is a seal of our mutual love, by this India & America are joined together with the indissoluble tie of love, heart embracing heart. They are no longer two different entities, ocean may separate their physical selves, but essentially they have now become one. May the Lord, Who first breathed this idea of universal toleration in the heart of Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna, & Who is now proclaiming this noble idea throughout the length & breadth of the world thro' Vivekananda, the fit disciple of a great & unparalleled master, keep us united thro' eternity._x000d_ Wishing to hear from you, our other selves of America, every now & then as to the success of our noble cause, in the name of all our brothers here,_x000d_ I remain yours ever with love _x000d_ Ramakrishnananda._x000d_ _x000d_ P.S. The Sanyasin disciple of the Swami [Kripananda] sends very interesting letters to the Brahmavadin. We cannot ade¬quately thank him for them. We look with eagerness in every fresh issue of the paper for the letter of K. We would be very glad if he (K) condescend to communicate with us directly._x000d_ _x000d_ Yours &c _x000d_ R.

Swami Ramakrishnananda's letter arrived in New York in the last days of April, and on May 1, Mr. Leggett wrote to Mrs. Bull: "The letter from India in answer to the Cable was simply beautiful. I have not the original but prize the copy which Mr. Goodwin furnished, very highly. I believe Miss Phillips has the original but think either you or I should possess it. Two days later, a number of the New York students sent the following letter to the Swamis in India:

19, West 38th Street _x000d_ May 3rd, 1896_x000d_ _x000d_ Dear Friends and Brothers,Swami Ramakrishnananda's letter to us, your American brothers and sisters, received a cordial welcome._x000d_ We believe with you that a strong bond of union now exists between your land and ours, established by the Swami Vivekananda._x000d_ The grand truths of the Vedanta, as presented by him, interested thinking minds of all classes, and met with a ready acceptance by In any of those, who had the privilege of hearing them._x000d_ The Swami Vivekananda sailed for England on the I5th of April. In his farewell address to his friends and pupils in New York, he spoke highly of the Americans, and the freedom of their institutions, which made them peculiarly accessible to the Vedanta Philosophy._x000d_ We did not realize until now, that the Hindus, so distant and so ancient, held so much wisdom and knowledge in trust for us, the youngest among nations._x000d_ With loving greetings, and the hope that we may frequently have the pleasure of hearing from you._x000d_ Your brothers and sisters in America,_x000d_ (Sd.) MARY PHILLIPS, S. ELLEN WALDO, WALTER GOODYEAR, FRANCES B. GOODYEAR, ETHEL E. HOWE, L. L. WIGHT, MARIE B. SMITH, SWAMI ABHAYANANDA, EDlTH SWANANDER, RUTH ELLIS, FLOUNCE D'A LE VINSEN, MAUDE R. LE VINSEN, CARL LE VINSEN, SWAMI JOGANANDA, HENRY J. VAN HAAGEN, J. E. SUITLERLIN, ELIZABETH ANNE WYMAN, DR. JOHN C. WYMAN, ANNlE A. HAINES, EDMOND L. (EDWARD G. P] DAY, M.D., MARY H. DAY, and many more._x000d_ "K" is not now in this city._x000d_ Neither Mr. Leggett nor Mrs. Bull, it may be noted, were included among tile above signatories. Nor did they succeed at once in obtaining Swami Ramakrishnananda's original letter from Miss Phillips. In November of 1896 she seems still to have laid it. In writing to Mrs. Bull on November 14 of the success of Miss Waldo's first lecture (see chapter fourteen, section two), Miss Phillips commented: "It (the occasion of the talk] was the first suitable opportunity to read the letter from Ramakrishnananda `To the Students of the Swami Vivekananda' which had come since the letter reached me and all seemed greatly interested in it, requesting printed copies.

According to an unidentified American newspaper, Miss Phillips had almost immediately on its receipt shown Swami Ramakrisnananda's letter to the Press. With pardonable though belated defensiveness she had assured a reporter: "'This letter shows with what reverence our Swami Vivekananda is held in India. It refutes effectually all of the hints that his religious enemies have tried to spread broadcast, that he was not the real representative of the Hindu monks to this country.

124 E. 44th Street, New York_x000d_ 14th April, 1896_x000d_ Dear Mrs. Bull,_x000d_ . . . Here is a curious person who comes to me with a letter from Bombay. He is a practical mechanic and his one idea is to see cutlery and other iron manufactories in this country. . . . I do not know anything about him, but even if he be a rogue, I like very much to foster this sort of adventurous spirit among my countrymen. He has money enough to pay his way._x000d_ Now, if with all caution testing of his genuineness of spirit, you feel satisfied, all he wants is to get some opportunities of seeing these manufactories. I hope he is true and that you can manage to help him in this._x000d_ Yours with kind regards,_x000d_ Vivekananda

6 West 43rd Street_x000d_ New York_x000d_ 14th April, 1896_x000d_ Dear Sisters {the Hale sisters},_x000d_ I arrived safe on Sunday and on account of illness could not write earlier. I sail on board the White Star Line Germanic tomorrow at 12 noon. With everlasting memory of love, gratitude and blessings,_x000d_ I am, your ever loving brother,_x000d_ Vivekananda

New York,_x000d_ 14th April, 1896_x000d_ Dear Dr. Nanjunda Rao,_x000d_ I received your note this morning. As I am sailing for England tomorrow, I can only write a few hearty lines. I have every sympathy with your proposed magazine for boys, and will do my best to help it on. You ought to make it independent, following the same lines as the Brahmavadin, only making the style and matter much more popular. As for example, there is a great chance, much more than you ever dream of, for those wonderful stories scattered all over the Sanskrit literature, to be re-written and made popular. That should be the one great feature of your journal. I will write stories, as many as I can, when time permits. Avoid all attempts to make the journal scholarly--the Brahmavadin stands for that--and it will slowly make its way all over the world, I am sure. Use the simplest language possible, and you will succeed. The main feature should be the teaching of principles through stories. Don't make it metaphysical at all. As to the business part, keep it wholly in your hands. "Too many cooks spoil the broth." In India the one thing we lack is the power of combination, organisation, the first secret of which is obedience._x000d_ I have also promised to help starting a magazine in Bengali in Calcutta. Only the first year I used to charge for my lectures. The last two years, my work was entirely free of all charges. As such, I have almost no money to send you or the Calcutta people. But I will get people to help you with funds very soon. Go on bravely. Do not expect success in a day or a year. Always hold on to the highest. Be steady. Avoid jealousy and selfishness. Be obedient and eternally faithful to the cause of truth, humanity, and your country, and you will move the world. Remember it is the person, the life, which is the secret of power--nothing else. Keep this letter and read the last lines whenever you feel worried or jealous. Jealousy is the bane of all slaves. It is the bane of our nation. Avoid that always. All blessings attend you and all success._x000d_ Yours affectionately,_x000d_ Vivekananda

New York,_x000d_ 14th April, 1896_x000d_ {original in Bengali}_x000d_ Dear Sarada,_x000d_ Glad to hear everything in your letter. I have got news that Sharat arrived safe. I am in receipt of your letter and the copy of the Indian Mirror . Your contribution is good, go on writing regularly. . . . It is very easy to search for faults, but the characteristic of a saint lies in looking for merits--never forget this. . . . You need a little business faculty. . . . Now what you want is organisation--that requires strict obedience and division of labour. I shall write out everything in every particular from England, for which I start tomorrow. I am determined to make you decent workers thoroughly organised. . . . The term "Friend" can be used with all. In the English language you have not that sort of cringing politeness common in Bengali, and such Bengali terms translated into English become ridiculous. That Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was God--and all that sort of thing--has no go in countries like this. M__ has a tendency to put that stuff down everybody's throat, but that will make our movement a little sect. You keep aloof from such attempts; at the same time, if people worship him as God, no harm. Neither encourage nor discourage. The masses will always have the person, the higher ones the principle ; we want both. But principles are universal, not persons. Therefore stick to the principles he taught, let people think whatever they like of his person. . . . Truce to all quarrels and jealousies and bigotry! These will spoil everything. "But many that are first shall be last; and the last first." "{Sanskrit}--Those who are the devotees of My devotees are My best devotees."_x000d_ Yours affectionately,_x000d_ Vivekananda

On Tuesday, the eve of his departure, Swamiji spent some time writing letters. One of these, written from the Le Vinsens' on their monogrammed stationery, was to Mrs. Bull and concerned "a curious person (a practical mechanic and inventor who comes to me with a letter from Bombay . . . [and] wants to learn the secret of iron manufacture." "I do not know anything about this man," he wrote, "but if he is not a rogue I like very much to foster this sort of adventurous spirit among my countrymen. He has money enough to pay his way though I helped him some. (Mr. Goodwin's measures were not working.) Swamiji concluded by asking Mrs. Bull (if she saw fit) to help this stranger, whom he had taken time to talk to and write about in these last hurried days.

In this same letter he added a significant postscript confirming his appointment of Mrs. Bull as caretaker of his work. * Heretofore unpublished, this brief mandate read:_x000d_ P.S. I shall sail tomorrow, expecting to see you in England. In the meanwhile I leave everything here to your care!_x000d_ *In the Life of Swami Vivekananda it is said, “Before leaving New York [Swamiji] made Mr. Francis H. Leggett … the President of the Vedanta Society (1965 edition, page 394; 1981 editiion, vol. 2, page 70). I do not at present know the evidence for this. There is, however, some evidence to the contrary. When Swami Abhedananda first came to New York in August of 1897, Mr. Leggett does not seem to have ever been president of the Society. It was only with difficulty that Swami Abhedananda persuaded him to become the first president of the Vedanta Society of New Yor as incorporated on October 28, 1898 (see Complete Works of Swami Abhedananda, vol. 10, pages 28, 65, 67,71)..

Swamiji also wrote at least two letters to India, both full of vigor. The first was addressed to Swami Trigunatita, but was meant for the guidance of all his brother disciples-and this in small detailed matters as well as in large. "The term `Friend' can be used with all," he wrote in connection with the form of an English invitation. And in the next few sentences cautioned his brothers against emphasizing the person of Sri Ramakrishna over the principles he taught and thereby making "our movement a little sect.

Swamiji's second letter to India was addressed to a friend in Madras, Dr. Nanjunda Rao, encouraging him in his proposed magazine and promising to write stories for it. The magazine came out under the name Prabuddha Bharataha name later to become well known to student of Vedanta the world over. The progress of his Indian work was ever in Swamiji's mind; indeed the amount of energy that flowed toward his motherland was very probably as great as, if not greater than, the energy he was expending in the West. But of that more later.

On the same day, April 14, he wrote from 6 West Forty-third Street (an address whose occupant in 1896 is not presently known) a short note of farewell to the Hale Sisters: "On account of illness [I] could not write earlier. I sail on board the White Star Line Germanic tomorrow at 12 noon. With everlasting memory of love, gratitude and blessings.

And at noon on Wednesday, April 15, 1896, the S.S. Germanic sailed from the foot of West Tenth Street with Swamiji aboard. Standing on deck, he waved a gerua scarf for "as long as the eye could follow to the many students and friends who had come to see him off. Thus his first visit to America came to an end. All told, he had spent less than two and a half years on American soil-years that hundreds of Americans would never forget and that he himself had found particularly fruitful. "After all," he would write to Mary Hale on his arrival in England, "those years there have been some of the best I have yet seen.

But "horn as a sacrifice to the Mother" as he was, retiring from work and sitting down in a cave was never to be his lot. Indeed, he only worked harder than ever. In the spring of 1896 letters had come pouring in to him, beseeching him to come to England again and to systematize the work he had initiated there. He felt the urgent need of doing so, and thus on April 15 at 12 noon, he sailed on the White Star Line's S.S. Germanic for England, there to take up another season of strenuous teaching. "A number of us went to see him off," Sister Haridasi wrote in a letter to a friend, "and as long as the eye could follow, he waved an orange scarf to us, in response to those we waved to him."

Though he had been in a constant whirlwind of work during his visit in America, Swami Vivekananda had delighted in hours of leisure when he could throw off his burden of teaching and preaching. At such times he would enjoy himself like a child. The giving of his message was, for him, the giving of his life's blood, and thus in hours of mental and physical weariness nothing interested him more than to "talk nonsense" and be amused. He would take up a copy of Punch or some other comic paper and laugh till the tears rolled from his eyes. He demanded diversion of mind because he knew his tendency to drift into serious moods of thought, and those who loved him were glad at heart when they saw him joyous as a child at play.

He heartily enjoyed a good story. He never forgot any such told to him and would tell it himself to the amusement of others when occasion arose. A few may here be told. A lady whose husband was a friend of the Swami and who took him for his first sleigh ride came to know him closely when she and the Swami were guests of Mrs. Bagley at Annisquam in August of 1894. She writes to Sister Nivedita: _x000d_ We were friends atonce …. He lectured only once at Annisquam. It was his holiday time …. He used to turn to me and say, "Tell me a story." I remember he was greatly amused by a tale about a Chinaman who had been arrested for stealing pork and who, in reply to the justice who remarked that he thought Chinamen did not eat pork, said, "Oh! Me Melican man now. Me, sir, me steal, me eat pork, me everything." How often I have beard Vivekananda say, sotto voce, "Me Melican man". These things would seem trifling to anyone who does not know the Swami as you do. But nothing which concerned him could seem trivial or of poor report to you) I am sure. _x000d_ 1 had lived for three years on a [Red] Indian, Reservation in Canada. The Swami was never tired of listening to anecdotes about the Red men. One I remember amused him greatly. An Indian whose wife had just died came to the parsonage for some nails for her coffin. While waiting he asked my cook if she would marry him! Naturally she was very indignant, and in reply to her sorrowful refusal the man only said, "Wait, you see." The following Sunday much to our amusement he came and sat upon one of the gate posts. _x000d_ He had a feather stuck jauntily in his hat, and hair oil, of which he had been most prodigal, was trickling down his checks. It happened that the Swami was giving sittings for his portrait just then, and we went to the studio to see how the portrait was progressing. Just as I entered, the Studio, a little oil ran down the cheek of the portrait, and the Swami seeing it said, "Getting ready to marry the cook!" … Knowing the Swami as you did, you must have realized what an exquisite sense of humour he had….