Meanwhile, he was not without good company in Wimbledon. Although Professor Deussen shortly went to stay with friends at St. John's Wood in London, the two men were often to meet and talk Sanskrit together.** Better still, there was Swamiji's `brother disciple Swami Abhedananda, whom he had sent for when Swami Saradananda left for America. "For the present, I shall have Kali here," he had written to Swami Ramakrishnananda as early as June 24; "tell him to be ready. And on July 3, "Send Kali to England as soon as you get this letter. . . . Let there be no delay as in Sharat's [Swami Saradananda's] case, but let Kali come at once. there was no delay. Swami Abhedananda left India in early August, and one day-sometime later than September 17*- ¬he suddenly appeared in Wimbledon. "By some mischance," Mr. Goodwin would later write to Mrs. Bull, "the Swami Abhedananda was not met at the Docks, but found his way up to the city & from there to Wimbledon alone. This will give you an idea of what he is. Indeed it is, in fact, remarkable that Swami Abhedananda learned where Swamiji was, let alone how to find his way to Wimbledon. But find his way he did not only to Wimbledon, but to Miss Muller's house, where, quite matter-of- factly perhaps, he knocked at her door. There he was-young (he would be thirty on October 2) and extraordinarily handsome with a beauty not of this earth answering Swamiji's call. Swamiji must have been overjoyed to see him._x000d_ _x000d_ ** In his autobiography Mcin Leben Deussen wrote of this period: "In England we [Vivekananda and I] lived separately but met every day and did many things together. Vivekananda introduced me to his protectors, Mr. Sturdy and Miss Muller, whom I found interesting." (Translation, courtesy of Swami Vidyatmananda.)_x000d_ * In a letter dated September I7, I896, Mr. Sturdy wrote to Mrs. Bull: "Abhedananda is on his way from India here, another gurubhai (brother) of Swami's."

During the next two weeks or so the two brother disciples surely talked for hours at a stretch; they also worked over the Sanskrit tomes that Swamiji had asked Swami Abhedananda to bring from India. "He will have to bring some books for me," he had written to Swami Ramakrishnananda in earl July. "I have only got Rig-Veda Samhita. Ask him to bring the Yajur-Veda, Sama-Veda, Atharva-Samhita, as many of the Brahmanas as he can get, beginning with the Shatapatha, some of the Sutras, and Yaska's Nirukta. The Swami probably brought them all except, perhaps, the Atharva-Samhita; for one finds Swamiji asking Sturdy on what was probably October 8, "Have you written for the Atharva Veda Samhita edited by Sankara Panduranga? But in any case, there were, one would think, enough Samhitas, Brahmanas, and Sutras to keep the two Swamis happily occupied. Swamiji had once again started to write "something big on the Vedanta philosophy -a project he had long been considering but had never had time for. "The other Swami who is here is also helping me in writing by collecting passages from books as I direct," he wrote from Wimbledon to Mrs. Bull on October 8. And to Alasinga from London, shortly after leaving Wimbledon, "I am busy collecting passages from the various Vedas bearing on the Vedanta in its threefold aspect," and asked for "a [Sanskrit] book published in Mysore in Tamil characters comprising all the one hundred and eight Upanishads. (In the event this book was not available in Devanagari characters, Swamiji planned to learn the Tamil alphabet.)

But even with piles of Sanskrit books to pore over, the two Swamis could not have spent all their time indoors at Wimbledon. Although the air was cold and brisk and the sky overcast that September of 1896, they must have often walked over the Common-an open area of almost one thousand acres that offered, as one contemporary writer put it, "the most glorious beauties, now on the wane [it being the fall of the year], of nature's ample munificence." In the expanse of the Common there was a deep and wide ravine that contained a woodland of hazel, beech, oak, and silver birch, a lovely lake named Queensmere, and a little brook that fed it. The town of Wimbledon was itself not unattractive, even in autumn. The streets of its upper-class residential district, which rose aristocratically on a hill above the railway station and the workmen's district, were shaded by red- and gold-leafed trees and lighted at night by what were even then antiquated oil lamps set on tall posts. The chestnut trees along High Street, where Miss Margaret Noble and her family lived, were laden with nuts, and the hedgerows in the lanes were red with berries. Miss Muller's rented house, Airlie Lodge, stood at the end of a one-block street named Ridgeway Gardens. It was a plain, medium-sized residence, detached from its neighbor by a narrow strip of land (now occupied by a garage), and except for its elfin name and its occupants that autumn of 1896, it was unremarkable, almost indistinguishable from the other houses on the block.

It is not unlikely that along that quiet street, where there was no through traffic, Swamiji again took up his attempt at bicycle riding, which he had begun in the spring at Pinkney's Green. This time he was more successful. "Like a little child ", Swami Abhedananda wrote in his diary, "Swamiji eagerly learnt to ride a bike," and whether or not this process took place at Wimbledon, he became so proficient that in London, as Swami Abhedananda continued with perhaps some exaggeration, he "would go out bicycling every morning" with Mr. Sturdy and others.

One was an outing of which we learn only a little through a letter Swamiji wrote to John Fox, then still in London, who copied it out for Mr. Goodwin, then in America, who, in turn, copied it out for Miss MacLeod in a letter dated October 4. The end result read:_x000d_ _x000d_ This is from a letter from Swami Vivekananda to Fox “I will be very glad to see you, and am really anxious to see you before you start for U.S. Tomorrow Prof. Deussen, myself, Miss Muller and some other friends are going to have a little picnic at Hampton Court Castle Hotel at I2.30. You are very welcome. There you will meet us all. Deussen and we have become great friends; we travelled together from Germany to London._x000d_ _x000d_ (In his letter to Miss MacLeod, which contained the above passage, Mr. Goodwin commented: "The enclosed reference to the Swami and Prof. Deussen is very good news-for Deussen.")_x000d_ Among the other friends who went on this "picnic" may have been the Seviers and Mr. Sturdy, the last of whom had moved with his wife and son from Caversham to London. (It is not probable that Mrs. Sturdy joined the party, for she was not overly fond of Swamiji or of Vedanta or of her husband's preoccupation with both* Moreover, there was the baby Ambrose to attend.)_x000d_ Hampton Court Castle, the largest and most magnificent of all England’s royal palaces, had been built by Cardinal Wolsey in 1515 for his own use and ten years later prudently presented to Henry VIII, who had had an eye on it. From then on, up until the time of George II, the palace had been a royal residence, embellished and enlarged as time went by. About fifteen miles southwest of London near the Thames, it was a vast structure of various architectures, mainly Gothic, with towers, crenelated walls, great halls, in which hung fine paintings and tapestries, and various courts, including the one that contained Henry VIII’s marvelous astronomical clock. There were, as well, a moat, beautiful gardens, a vast deer park, and a maze that was easier to get into than out of. It is not conceivable that Swamiji and his friends would have lunched at the Hampton Court Castle Hotel without intending to see at least some parts of this famous and history-rich castle._x000d_ _x000d_ * On November 4, I897, Swami Abhedananda would write to Swami Brahmananda from New York: "Mrs. Sturdy is dead [set] against Vedanta and Narendra; she gets upset at the very name of India. She has swallowed Mr. Sturdy and is always on her guard lest Sturdy becomes a Sannyasin and escapes" (Swami Abhedananada, Complete Works, IO: I46). For Mrs Sturdy's early animosity toward Swamiji see Complete Works, 7: 516.

He accompanied Captain and Mrs. Sevier to their home in Hampstead, a borough of London; while Professor Deussen made his home with friends in St. John's Wood, also a section of the city. After his vacation of almost exactly two months (from July 19 to September 17), the Swami's health was, much improved, and he could again meet the demands of his work with energy and enthusiasm.

Airlie Lodge, Ridgeway Gardens_x000d_ Wimbledon, England_x000d_ 17th Sept., 1896_x000d_ Dear Sister {Harriet Hale},_x000d_ Your very welcome news reached me just now, on my return here from Switzerland. I am very, very happy to learn that at last you have thought it better to change your mind about the felicity of "Old Maids Home". You are perfectly right now--marriage is the truest goal for ninety-nine per cent of the human race, and they will live the happiest life as soon as they have learnt and are ready to abide by the eternal lesson--that we are bound to bear and forbear and that life to every one must be a compromise._x000d_ Believe me, dear Harriet, perfect life is a contradiction in terms. Therefore we must always expect to find things not up to our highest ideal. Knowing this, we are bound to make the best of everything. From what I know of you, you have the calm power which bears and forbears to a great degree, and therefore I am safe to prophesy that your married life will be very happy._x000d_ All blessings attend you and your fiance and may the Lord make him always remember what good fortune was his in getting such a wife as you--good, intelligent, loving, and beautiful. I am afraid it is impossible for me to cross the Atlantic so soon. I wish I could, to see your marriage._x000d_ The best I can do in the circumstances is to quote from one of our books: "May you always enjoy the undivided love of your husband, helping him in attaining all that is desirable in this life, and when you have seen your children's children, and the drama of life is nearing its end, may you help each other in reaching that infinite ocean of Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss, at the touch of whose waters all distinctions melt away and we are all one!" _x000d_ "May you be like Uma, chaste and pure throughout life--may your husband be like Shiva, whose life was in Uma!"_x000d_ Your loving brother,_x000d_ Vivekananda

Airlie Lodge, Ridgeway Gardens_x000d_ Wimbledon, England_x000d_ 17th September, 1896_x000d_ Dear Sister {Mary Hale},_x000d_ Today I reached London, after my two months of climbing and walking and glacier seeing in Switzerland. One good it has done me--a few pounds of unnecessary adipose tissue have returned back to the gaseous state. Well, there is no safety even in that, for the solid body of this birth has taken a fancy to outstrip the mind towards infinite expansion. If it goes on this way, I would have soon to lose all personal identity even in the flesh--at least to all the rest of the world._x000d_ It is impossible to express my joy in words at the good news contained in Harriet's letter. I have written to her today. I am sorry I cannot come over to see her married, but I will be present in "fine body" with all good wishes and blessings. Well, I am expecting such news from you and other sisters to make my joy complete. Now, my dear Mary, I will tell you a great lesson I have learnt in this life. It is this: "The higher is your ideal, the more miserable you are"; for such a thing as an ideal cannot be attained in the world , or in this life even. He who wants perfection in the world is a madman, for it cannot be._x000d_ How can you find the Infinite in the finite? Therefore I tell you, Harriet will have a most blessed and happy life, because she is not so imaginative and sentimental as to make a fool of herself. She has enough of sentiment as to make life sweet, and enough of common sense and gentleness as to soften the hard points in life which must come to everyone. So has Harriet McKindley in a still higher degree. She is just the girl to make the best of wives, only this world is so full of idiots that very few can penetrate beyond the flesh! As for you and Isabelle, I will tell you the truth, and my "language is plain"._x000d_ You, Mary, are like a mettlesome Arab--grand, splendid. You will make a splendid queen--physically, mentally. You will shine alongside of a dashing, bold, adventurous, heroic husband; but, my dear sister, you will make one of the worst of wives. You will take the life out of our easy-going, practical, plodding husbands of the everyday world. Mind, my sister, although it is true that there is more romance in actual life than in any novel, yet it is few and far between. Therefore my advice to you is that until you bring down your ideals to a more practical level, you ought not to marry. If you do, the result will be misery for both of you. In a few months you will lose all regard for a commonplace, good, nice, young man, and then life will become insipid. As to sister Isabelle, she has the same temperament as you; only this kindergarten has taught her a good lesson of patience and forbearance. Perhaps she will make a good wife._x000d_ There are two sorts of persons in the world. The one--strong-nerved, quiet, yielding to nature, not given to much imagination, yet good, kind, sweet, etc. For such is this world; they alone are born to be happy. There are others again with high-strung nerves, tremendously imaginative, with intense feeling, always going high one moment and coming down the next. For them there is no happiness. The first class will have almost an even tenor of happiness; the last will have to run between ecstasy and misery. But of these alone what we call geniuses are made. There is some truth in the recent theory that "genius is a sort madness". _x000d_ Now, persons of this class if they want to be great, they must fight to finish--clear out the deck for battle. No encumbrance--no marriage, no children, no undue attachment to anything except the one idea , and live and die for that. I am a person of this sort. I have taken up the one idea of "Vedanta" and I have "cleared the deck for action". You and Isabelle are made of this metal; but let me tell you, though it is hard, you are spoiling your lives in vain . Either take up one idea , clear the deck, and to it dedicate the life; or be contented and practical; lower the ideal, marry, and have a happy life . Either "Bhoga" or "Yoga"; none can have both in one . Now or never, select quick. "He who is very particular gets nothing", says the proverb. Now sincerely and really and for ever determine to "clear the deck for fight", take up anything, philosophy or science or religion or literature, and let that be your God for the rest of your life. Achieve happiness or achieve greatness. I have no sympathy with you and Isabelle; you are neither for this nor for that. I wish to see you happy, as Harriet has well chosen, or great . Eating, drinking, dressing, and society nonsense are not things to throw a life upon--especially you, Mary. You are rusting away a splendid brain and abilities, for which there is not the least excuse. You must have ambition to be great. I know you will take these rather harsh remarks from me in the right spirit knowing I like you really as much or more than what I call you, my sisters. I had long had a mind to tell you this, and as experience is gathering I feel like telling you. The joyful news from Harriet urged me to tell you this. I will be overjoyed to hear that you are married also and happy, so far as happiness can be had here, or would like to hear of you as doing great deeds._x000d_ I had a pleasant visit with Prof. Deussen in Germany. I am sure you have heard of him as the greatest living German philosopher. He and I travelled together to England and today came together to see my friend here with whom I am to stop for the rest of my stay in England. He (Deussen) is very fond of talking Sanskrit and is the only Sanskrit scholar in the West who can talk in it. As he wants to get a practice, he never talks to me in any other language but Sanskrit._x000d_ I have come over here amongst my friends, shall work for a few weeks, and then go back to India in the winter._x000d_ Ever your loving brother,_x000d_ Vivekananda

Swamiji's vacation in Europe-the pure air of the Swiss Alps, the weeks of peace and meditation at Saas-Fee, the companionship of his fellow travelers, the good talks with Professor Paul Deussen-had done him much good. "I had a fine rest," he would write later to Miss Waldo of those two months. And in a letter to Mary Hale, written on the day he arrived in England from the Continent-September I7: "One good it has done me-a few pounds of unnecessary adipose tissue have returned back to the gaseous state. From this letter we learn that Swamiji and Professor Deussen had traveled that same day from London to the suburb of Wimbledon, where Miss Henrietta Muller then lived.* "I am [going] to stop [with Miss Muller] for the rest of my stay in England, he wrote, informing Mary Hale of a plan no doubt made in Switzerland before Miss Muller left the party. That arrangement would not, however, prove to be convenient, and in two or three weeks he would move to the city._x000d_ * It is interesting to note that although, according to the Seviers, Miss Muller had "treated Swamiji like a dog" in Europe, he found it in his heart, as always, to forgive and forgive and forgive, and, in this instance to put a seal upon his forgiveness by accepting Miss Muller's invitation to be a guest in her Wimbledon home. Captain Sevier does not appear to have been so tolerant of Miss Muller's vagaries (see note to page 483, chapter I6)._x000d_ According to the Life (pages 428 and 429 in the 1965 edition), Swamiji went directly from the Liverpool Station in London to the Seviers' home in the northern suburb of Hampstead, where he is said to have stayed for a few days before going on to Wimbledon. I do not know what evidence there is for this, and since there is good evidence that he and Professor Paul Deussen traveled from London to Wimbledon on the day of their arrival in London-the evidence of Swamiji'' own words (Complete Works 8: 392)-I have followed that line of history. (Later on, Swamiji may have spent a few days at the Seviers' flat in Hampstead. Or the night of October 7, he wrote a letter to Mis MacLeod from there.)

After a few days' stay with the Seviers in Hampstead, he moved to Airlie Lodge, Ridgeway Gardens, the residence of Miss Henrietta Muller and there commenced his work.

c/o Miss H. Muller,_x000d_ Airlie Lodge, Ridgeway Gardens_x000d_ Wimbledon, England_x000d_ 22nd September, 1896_x000d_ Dear Alasinga,_x000d_ I am sure you have got the article on Ramakrishna, I sent you, by Max Muller. Do not be sorry, he does not mention me there at all, as it was written six months before he knew me. And then who cares whom he mentions, if he is right in the main point. I had a beautiful time with Prof. Deussen in Germany. Later, he and I came together to London, and we have already become great friends._x000d_ I am soon sending you an article on him. Only pray do not put that old-fashioned "Dear Sir" before my articles. Have you seen the Raja-Yoga book yet? I will try to send you a design for the coming year. I send you a Daily News article on a book of travel written by the Czar of Russia. The paragraph in which he speaks of India as the land of spirituality and wisdom, you ought to quote in your paper and send the article to the Indian Mirror._x000d_ You are very welcome to publish the Jnana-Yoga lectures, as well as Dr. (Nanjunda Rao) in his Awakened India --only the simpler ones. They have to be very carefully gone through and all repetitions and contradictions taken out. I am sure I will now have more time to write. Work on with energy._x000d_ With love to all,_x000d_ Yours,_x000d_ Vivekananda_x000d_ PS. I have marked the passage to be quoted, the rest of course is useless for a paper._x000d_ I do not think it would be good just now to make the paper a monthly one yet, unless you are sure of giving a good bulk. As it is now, the bulk and the matter are all very poor. There is yet a vast untrodden field, namely--the writing of the lives and works of Tulasidasa, Kabir, Nanak, and of the saints of Southern India. They should be written in a thorough-going, scholarly style, and not in a slipshod, slovenly way. In fact, the ideal of the paper, apart from the preaching of Vedanta, should be to make it a magazine of Indian research and scholarship, of course, bearing on religion. You must approach the best writers and get carefully-written articles from their pen. Work on with all energy._x000d_ Yours with love,_x000d_ Vivekananda

But it was during their stay in the mountains that Mr. Goodwin quite suddenly backed away from the entire New York work. Ostensibly the difficulty was Swami Saradananda's disregard of his (Goodwin's) authority in spiritual matters. But let us quote at some length from his letter to Mrs. Bull, dated September 22:

There is one point with regard to my own connection with (Swami Saradananda's] teaching which has come home forcibly to me, & which I think has made me decide finally to go to England, either now, or a little later on. It is this-and I had a very long discussion with Mrs. Farwell (a friend of Mrs. Bull's from St. Paul and a lecturer at Greenacre] about it this morning. The Swami was asked to give an informal talk here on his religion the other night, & did so very well. On Sunday evg (September 20] he was asked again to answer ques¬tions. This he also did. One question towards the end asked for information regarding the breathing. But this question was asked in such a way that he might have avoided it. "If you would rather go into this at another time do so, Swami." Yet he went into the whole matter¬ glossed it over-gave just enough for them to have some¬thing to practice, & certainly not enough for them to understand it._x000d_ Now, rightly or wrongly, I feel very strongly about this. The Swami Vivekananda sent me over with him to help him in matters of policy, & I feel that as the Swami S. has so great a regard for the Swami V. he shd be will¬ing to follow his wishes in matters of policy-whether he has the freedom of a Sanyassin or no-until he has discovered, really, a line for himself. The Swami V. has come to just the same view of Raja Yoga as I have-& I believe you have, that it shd never where possible to avoid it, be taught in class. . . . I have spoken numbers of times with Saradananda about this-& he has taken the same view. What am I to think then of his meeting a haphazard dozen of people at a holiday hotel, & telling them just enough Raja Yoga to give them something to work upon, & not enough to be scientific with it? This is not by any means the first time he has entirely ignored my advice, & I can only feel that Miss Waldo has undermined the right the Swami Viv. Expressly gave me to advise him. In this case it wd be foolish on my part to take the respon¬sibility on myself of the management part of his work in New York, with the necessity of Miss Waldo at hand constantly. I feel, moreover, that you are right in claim¬ing that New York must share the Vedanta with other towns, & shd therefore wait its turn now. I am afraid in face of all this (I) that I shall have to surrender the charge, in no matter how insignificant a way, of Sarada¬nanda's work; (2) that New York should at least wait till the New Year for him, when Mr. Fox probably will have enough acquaintance with the nature of his work in Cambridge to attend him in N.Y., if thought advisable; (3) that altho I will consider it my duty when the time is ripe (perhaps next Dec or January or perhaps later) to establish the New York centre on the line's proposed, my responsibility must end with the establishment. Per¬haps you will find it hard to understand how intensely I feel about Raja Yoga, & I may appear bigoted to you in the matter. If so it means that I am not fit to be with the Swami Vivekananda even, but I hope not. I think I have formed my conclusions from careful study of con¬sequences-& helped by numbers of hard facts in the dangers which it has actually implied._x000d_ If I go to England I think it will be wrong to delay as little as possible-& I personally favor the idea of going next week-unless I go altogether later. .. ._x000d_ I must add one thing more. The thing that I have sd here is intended as no reflection on the Swami. I blame Miss Waldo entirely & not him, & I have tried to write this in the broadest possible way.

What Miss Waldo had to do with the matter is not clear, but just at this point she played directly into Mr. Goodwin's hands with a letter that was almost certainly intended to be taunting. She wrote the following to him on September 23

I went last evig, at Miss Phillips' invitation to listen to Mr. J. C. Chattopadhyaya, a Brahmin from Eng. I like him exceedingly. He is a good speaker & presented the Vedanta in a somewhat new light, but most excellently. It is fortunate for us in N.Y. that we shall not be left destitute of a teacher after all. We hope to keep this one, even tho' Dr. Janes has invited him to Cambridge to speak this winter. I only got home yesterday & went over at once to 38th St (the home of Miss Mary Phillips). . . . Do you expect to sail on the 26th & are you likely to return to America this winter? If so, I suppose Cambridge will claim you.

I enclose [a] letter from Miss Waldo, than which nothing could be more opportune. I tried all the summer, in every way possible-& even went very much out of my way, to become on very friendly terms with Miss Waldo, but I have failed, & intend to take another course in all future dealings. Therefore I am pleased to receive this letter, which, in the face of what both the Swami Saradananda & I told her about this Brahmin & the Swami V's desire that he shd not be connected with the movement in any way, declares her intention to accept him as the winter's teacher. In the face of this it wd be impossible to ask Mr Leggett or anyone else to contribute anything towards a centre.

Before concluding this chapter, let us turn again to the other renowned Sanskritist friend of Swamiji's. As we have seen earlier, in Saas-Fee Swamiji received a warm letter from Max Muller, dated August 2. The Professor wrote to Swamiji again the following month. Although this second letter is not available, it left its trail in a note Swamiji wrote to Mr. Sturdy, probably on Thursday, October 8:* "I forgot to tell you in the morning that Prof. Max Muller also offered in his letter to me to do everything he can if I go to lecture at Oxford: _x000d_ * In the Complete Works (8:376) Swamiji's letter to Sturdy is dated "April, I896, Thursday Afternoon. "But the return address is "Waveney Mansions, Fairhazel Gardens, London, N.W.," which was the home address of Captain and Mrs. Sevier in Hampstead, London. Swamiji had not yet met the Seviers in April of I896. It is not likely that he visited their home until after he had returned from Europe. Thus the date of this letter to Sturdy must fall somewhere between September I7 and November 98. Very probably it was written on Thursday, October 8. Swamiji had, we know, spent the night of October 7 at the Seviers' home (see Complete Works, 6:376).

We know very little about Swamiji's proposed lectures at Oxford, except that he had fully intended to give them. In a letter to Alasinga, he wrote early in October, "Max Muller is getting very friendly. I am soon going to deliver two lectures at Oxford.

I look forward with great pleasure to hearing Vivekananda lecture here. But I am sorry I cannot do what you wish and preside. During all the years I have been at Oxford, since 1847, I have never presided at any Meeting, and if Dr. Drummond lets you have a room in his College, it is he or Prof. Carpenter who ought to preside, not I. I have heard nothing as yet from Prof. [J. Estlin] Carpenter, but shall try to see him and arrange matters with him.

But that is all. The next one hears, Professor Max Muller is writing to Sturdy on November 28 to ask "Is Vivekananda still in England?" And in this same letter inquires: "Has Vivekananda given up his idea of lecturing at Oxford? I was sorry to have to decline taking the chair at Manchester College. But during the 50 years I have spent at Oxford, I have never taken the chair and I could not have done so without giving offence. The head of each College is the right person to take the Chair in his own College.

Why Swamiji changed his mind about lecturing at Oxford we do not know. We can, however, be fairly certain that Professor J. Estlin Carpenter, who is mentioned in Max Muller's letter of October 16, would have been willing to preside. Although the Professor (it was said) had been among those clergymen sharply and unfairly critical of Swamiji during his years in America,* he had evidently changed his views._x000d_ * In her letter of August 22, I895, to Lady Henry Somerset, Mrs. Bull had written: "The estimate against Vivekananda has been serious because of remarks repeated from Mozoomdar, Lyman Abbott and Prof Estlin Carpenter, remarks that have come directly to me, and from others as well as these." (See World [Teacher- I, chapter three, section one.)

. . . The same indefatigable scholar [Max Muller] has sketched for us in the current number of the Nineteenth Century a modern figure of singular interest, the late Ramakrishna Paramahansa who so deeply influenced Keshab Chunder Sen in the last stage of his career, and died after him, near Calcutta in 1886. He did not belong to any of the orthodox Hindu sects, but came nearest, perhaps, to the teaching of the Vedanta. He represents that tendency, planted so deep in the Hindu mind, towards spiritual abstraction which enabled him to accept the doctrines and practise the usages of each religious cult in turn. His disciples have carried his teachings over India, and one of them Vivekananda, has been recently in this country. The philosophical and religious addresses of this remarkable personality, who produced a great effect at the Chicago Parliament of Religions, have been. issued in three little volumes (Simpkin, Marshall and Co.; eighteen pence each), well worth the study of all who are interested in the present developments of religion in India. They are reprinted from shorthand reports with very slight modifications. The Swami speaks, as I had the good fortune to hear at the annual meeting of the Free Religious Association at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in August, 1894 , in perfect English, with that mastery over both matter and form which comes of long meditation and possession of his subject. One series is entitled "Karma Yoga, or the Realisation of the Divine through Works performed without attachment." The second ascends higher and expounds the principles of "Bhakti Yoga, or the Realisation of the Divine through Love"; while the third presents the "Ideal of a Universal Religion". The perennial problems of the meaning of the world and life are here presented in the light of the highest Hindu philosophy. The preacher stands outside all parties. He does not attempt, like Keshub Chunder Sen or Protap Chunder Mozoomdar, to reckon with Christ or Christianity as living forces. He is not concerned with historic institutions. The essence of religion for him lies in yoga,- union between God and man,-which must be based on the harmonious activity of all man's powers. How to achieve it, what discipline of reason and will, of unselfish labour, of spiritual affection, is needed for the soul that would know itself in God, -this is set forth with much earnestness in these discourses. Whatever message we may have to send to India, we must not ignore the insight of its own seers.

Professor Max Muller corresponded with Mr. Sturdy in November and December of 1896 and January and February of 189'7.* These letters concerned the material sent to the Professor from India for his proposed book on Sri Ramakrishna. He was not altogether satisfied with it. "Tell (Vivekananda)," he wrote in his letter of November 28, "that a collection of Ramakrishna's sayings that I have received from N. Ramakrishnananda Alumbasa [Swami Ramakriahnananda, Alambazar] are the same as those published in the Brahmavadin. What I want to know is whether there are any more, and whether there are any more fully developed, and not mere aphorisms._x000d_ * Max Muller's letters to Mr. Sturdy can be found in Sankari Prasad Basu's Vivekananda O Samakaleen Bharalvarsha [Vivekananda and contemporary India], volume two, pages I36-38.

On December 8, he wrote again to Sturdy in this connection: "I have tried to arrange some of Ramakrishna's utterances. If you have a copy of the Brahmavadin to spare, it will be useful. I wonder who has put these sentences into Sanskrit. Mr. Sturdy informed him that it was Swamiji's Gurubhai Ramakrishnananda who had done so. Whereupon, the Professor wrote: "Are you quite certain that Ramakrishna put these sayings into Sanskrit verse? I was assured that he was quite unable to do so. I think Vivekananda himself told me so. Then, on being set straight: "The Sanskrit translation is very good-I did not know the meaning of Guruthai [Gurubhai].

That point cleared up, the Professor continued with his work of "trying to make a complete collection of Sri Ramakrishna's sayings, from both Swami Ramakrishnananda's manuscript and the Brahmavadin, which, since its first issue, had been running a collection of the Master's Sayings.* In February of 1897, the cold and damp of England caused the Professor to flee to Italy. By this time, however, he had completed his collection of the Sayings and had indexed them._x000d_ * The Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna were first compiled by the Master's householder disciple Suresh Chandra Dutta. The book contained 595 Sayings, some of which were later translated into English from the Bengali for the Brahmavadin (September I4, I895 October ~, I897) and some into Sanskrit by Swami Ramakrishnananda for the monthly Vidyodaya (as well as for Max Muller).

Meanwhile, Max Muller's Nineteenth Century article on Sri Ramakrishna had been bitterly criticized by both the Christian missionaries and the Brahmo Samajists. In Swamiji's words of a later date:_x000d_ _x000d_ When Professor Max Muller, who occupies in the West the first rank in the field of Indian religion, philosophy, and literature, published with a devoted heart a short sketch of Shri Ramakrishna's life, in the Nineteenth Century, for the benefit of Europeans and Americans, it is needless to say that a bitter feeling of burning rancour made its appearance amongst [the Christian missionaries and certain members of the Brahmo Samaj]. By improper representation of the Hindu gods and goddesses, the Christian missionaries were trying with all their heart and soul to prove that really religious men could never be produced from among their worshippers; but like a straw before a tidal wave, that attempt was swept away; while that class of our countrymen alluded to above, which set itself to devise means for quenching the great fire of the rapidly spreading power of Shri Ramakrishna, seeing all its efforts futile, has yielded to despair. . . . Of course, from both sides, unintermittent volleys of fierce attack were opened on the aged Professor's devoted head.

Swamiji went on to say that the Professor faced these attacks with dignity, "and to stop the empty shouts of his inferior opponents, he has published, by way of a warning to them, the book, Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings.

The book was published in November of 1898. One hundred and three of its two hundred pages were devoted to the Sayings and their Index. The remainder dealt with India's spiritual traditions, some of her modern saints, the life of Sri Ramakrishna, and a strong reply to Pratap Chandra Mazumdar's charges against Sri Ramakrishna-such as that he declined to live a married life, used strong language, and so on.

But there was one flaw that ran like a crack throughout the main burden of the book. The good Professor was a scholar with a reputation at stake. He was not about to give his critics the least opening for attack. He proceeded with the utmost caution and, to be on the safe side, threw the blame for any possible mistake or misjudgment upon Swamiji. He did this in the name of scholarship.

. . . We possess indeed full accounts of his life, but they are often so strangely exaggerated, nay so contradictory, that it seemed almost hopeless to form a correct and true idea of his earthly career and his character. I applied therefore to one of his most eminent pupils, Vivekananda, asking him to write down for me what he could tell of his own knowledge of his venerable teacher, and I received from him a full description of his Master's life. It will be easily seen, however, that even this account is not quite free from traditional elements. If I give it as much as possible unaltered, I have a reason for it. Such as it is, it will give us an insight into the way in which a new religion, or rather a new sect, springs up and grows. It will place before our eyes the transformation which mere repetition, conversation, or what is called oral tradition will and must produce in the description of the facts as they really happened. We can watch here what is really a kind of Dialectic Process which is at work in all history, both ancient and modern. . . . There is hardly a single fact in history which can escape being modified by this process [which he also calls the Dialogic Process] before it reaches the writer of history. . . . How can we ever hope to escape from the transforming power of oral tradition? The changes wrought by that power are of course more or less violent according to circum¬stances; entirely absent, I believe, they never are. And nowhere are they more evident than in the accounts which have reached us of the founding of new religions and of their founders. . . . It is for this very reason, and because this process can be so seldom watched, but can generally be traced in its later results only, that even this slight sketch of what a disciple of Ramakrishna, with every wish to be truthful, can tell us of his master, may be of some interest to ourselves both for its own sake and for the light which it throws on the conditions under which every religion has to grow up and to be recorded….

I had made it as clear as possible to Vivekananda that the accounts hitherto published of his Master, however edifying they might be to his followers, would sound perfectly absurd to European students, that stories of miraculous events in childhood, of apparitions of goddess (devi) communicating to the Sannyasin a knowledge of languages and literature which, as we know, he never possessed in real life, would simply be thrown away on us poor unbelievers, and that descriptions of miracles performed by the Saint, however well authenticated, would produce the very opposite effect of what they were intended for. Vivekananda himself is a man who knows England and America well, and perfectly understood what I meant. Yet even his unvarnished description of his Master discloses here and there the clear traces of what I call the Dialogic Process, and the impressible miraculising tendencies of devoted disciples. And I am really glad that it does so, if only it helps to teach us that no historian can ever pretend to do more than to show us what a man or a fact seemed to be to him or to the authorities whom he has to follow, and not what he or it actually was.

While Professor Max Muller attended well to the Dialogic Process, he seems to have given little importance to the logical process. He argued in a circle: the Dialogic Process was inevitable and particularly evident among religious devotees; therefore the actual facts of the life of Sri Ramakrishna were necessarily distorted by Swami Vivekananda's well-intentioned narrative of them; therefore his narrative serves as an excellent example of the process, demonstrating its inevitable influence. To make his point, the Professor here and there interjected a parenthetical remark in the story of Sri Ramakrishna's life, indicating the disciple's unconscious apotheosis of his Master. In connection, for example, with the instances in which people experienced samadhi at the touch of the Master, the _x000d_ Professor makes the aside: "(evidently cases of hypnosis)." On the other hand, as already mentioned, he boldly contested Pratap Chandra Mazumdar's criticisms of Sri Ramakrishna, seeing in them a Dialogic Process of another kind. As for the Sayings, of which he gave 395, he states that he himself found some of them "insipid, in bad taste, or even blas¬phemous," but included all such in the interest of historic truth.

Swamiji's admiration for Max Muller and for his life-long work did not diminish. He excused the human weakness of the venerable Professor; yet one cannot but suppose that it saddened him. In his long review of Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings, which he wrote for the Udbodhan of March 14, 1899, it is clear that in some respects neither the book nor the man had come up to his expectations.

There are certain great souls in the West who sincerely desire the good of India, but we are not aware whether Europe can point out another well-wisher of India who feels more for India's well-being than Professor Max Muller. Not only is Max Muller a well-wisher of India, but he has also a strong faith in Indian philosophy and Indian religion. That Advaitism is the highest discovery in the domain of religion, the Professor has many times publicly admitted. . . . Still, as a worldly man, whoever he may be, he has to look to all sides and conduct himself accordingly. When, after a complete surrender of all worldly interests, even the Sannyasin, when performing any practices which he knows to be purest in themselves, is seen to shiver in fear of public opinion, . . . what wonder then that the man of the world who is universally honoured and is ever anxious not to incur the displeasure of society will have to be very cautious in ventilating the views which he personally cherishes. It is not a fact that the Professor is an utter disbeliever in such subjects as the mysterious psychic powers of the Yogis.

It is not many years since Professor Max Muller "felt called upon to say a few words on certain religious movements now going on in India-which has often and not unjustly been called a country of philosophers"-which seemed to him "to have been very much misrepresented and misunderstood at home." In order to remove such misconceptions . . . Professor Max Muller presented Shri Ramakrishna's life to the learned European public in an article entitled "A Real Mahatman," which appeared in The Nineteenth Century in the August number, 1896.

The Professor greatly fears lest the Dialogic Process - the transformation produced in the description of the facts as they really happened, by too much favourableness or unfavourableness of the narrator towards them-which is invariably at work in all history as a matter of inevitable course, also influences this present sketch of [Shri Ramakrishna's] life. Hence his unusual carefulness about the collection of facts. The present writer is an insignificant ser¬vant of Shri Ramakrishna. Though the materials gathered by him for Ramakrishna's life have been well pounded in the mortar of the Professor's logic and impartial judgment, still he (Max Muller) has not omitted to add that there may be possible "traces of what I call the Dialogic Process and the irrepressible miraculising tendencies of devoted disciples", even in "his [Swamiji's] unvarnished description of his Master". . . . Shri Ramakrishna's life _x000d_ is presented in the book in very brief and simple language. In this life, every word of the wary historian is weighed, as it were, before being put on paper; those sparks of fire, which are seen here and there to shoot forth in the article "A Real Mahatman," are, this time, held in with the greatest care. The Professor's boat is here plying between the Scylla of the Christian missionaries on the one hand, and the Charybdis of the tumultuous Brahmos on the other.

Swamiji then highly praised the Professor for having replied to "the many hard words and many carping remarks" of his critics, removing "with a sober, dignified, not the least malignant, yet firm and thundering voice worthy of the aged scholar . . . the charges that were levelled against some of the out-of the-common ideas of the great-souled sage [Sri Ramakrishna]-swelling forth from a heart too deep for ordinary grasp.

After himself saying a thundering thing or two about these charges, Swamiji praises the Professor's collection of Sayings as a whole. "That those sayings have attracted the attention of many of the English-speaking readers throughout the world, can be easily inferred from the rapid sales of the book."89 Indeed, the book was well received and widely read, helping, as was said, to bring "to the notice of the Western world the life, character, and teachings of one of the greatest Vedantic teachers of modern times."90 And so it did. But while Swamiji never lost his high regard for Max Muller, his earlier unalloyed, almost childlike delight in the purity and integrity of the "silver-headed sage" whose "reverence for Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa [was] supreme," was tempered now with his knowledge of the Professor's care for public approval, for the sake of which he would on occasion sacrifice not only his friends but his own beliefs.*_x000d_ * Swamiji may also have been surprised at the following passage in Max Muller's autobiography, Auld Lang Syne, which was published in 1899 and could have come to his notice: "When I see well-intentioned men like Vivekananda preaching the doctrines of the Upanishads, of Badarayana and Samkara in America, and gaining, as I read, numerous converts, I still seem to perceive now and then something of the old Blavatsky leaven that has not yet been entirely thrown off.Vedantism requires no bush, no trappings, no tricks.What we want is a historical and critical treatment,_x000d_ just the same as that which has been applied to Plato and Aristotle" (page I66). And again, "From what I have seen and read of Vivekananda and his colleagues, they seem to me honestly bent on doing good work.... Vivekananda and the other followers of Ramakrishna ought, however, to teach their followers how to distinguish between the perfervid utterances of their teacher, Ramakrishna, an enthusiastic Bhakta (devotee), and the clear and dry style of the Sutras of Badarayana. The Vedanta spirit is there, but the form often becomes too vague and exaggerated to give us an idea of what the true Gnanin (knower) ought to be" (page 169). It is interesting to compare the above with the letter Max Muller wrote to Swamiji, as given in chapter eleven, pages 170-7I.

How few people, on the human, everyday level of life, did not in one way or another disappoint Swamiji! Barring his brother disciples, one can count them on one's fingers-a calculation that he himself' certainly never made, so quickly and so totally did he excuse a fault or forgive a failure of understanding or of love-and yet, one cannot suppose that the wounds he sustained were not sometimes very deep.

Accordingly to the probable date of this talk, it would have been, as noted above, the second of the two talks mentioned in the Life. Yet in subject matter it seems to have been an introduction and brief survey of the Vedantic philosophy. Swamiji spoke of the early search by the Vedic Aryans for God in the outside world of sense and matter, of their dissatisfaction with the concept of a monotheistic God, and of their turning inward to discover that “what we call the Absolute, the Universal Soul, the Self is the force by which from the beginning all things have been and are and will be manifested.

One of the remarkable part's of this lecture, of which we have only an excerpt, was' its 'concluding paragraph. "The scientist," Swamiji said, "is brought to the necessity of recognising metaphysics when he supposes that atoms having neither breadth nor length yet become, when combined, the cause of extension, length, and breadth. He seems to have been speaking here of subatomic "particles" which indeed lie beyond sensory perception and have' "neither length nor breadth," but which are yet the "stuff" of our solid three-dimensional world. When one considers that the existence of even the electron would not be established for another year, Swamiji's scientific knowledge-or was it prescience?-is astounding. "It is finally the mind," he went on to say, "which gives the form to all perception. When I see a chair, it is not the real chair external to my eye which I perceive but an external something plus the material image formed. Thus even the materialist is driven to metaphysics in the last extremity. Perhaps few scientists of the late nineteenth century would have agreed with Swamiji. But today in the late twentieth century physicists are beginning to point out striking parallels between their own mind-boggling discoveries and the equally stunning pronouncements of Eastern mysticism-parallels that Swamiji had struggled to express again and again with the inadequate scientific terminology of the nineteenth century, attempting to point out in the Newtonian language of his day the similarities between the concepts of Vedanta and the findings of a then unknown physics, which he clearly foresaw. The time was not far off when at least some of the truths that he was stating would be scientifically verified: relativity and quantum physics were just around the corner; but he could not wait; he went ahead, not only giving scientific support to Vedantic concepts but supplying the science of the future with a philosophy and religion it could accept.

He had also, however, received some disturbing (or, at least, disturbed) news, which would lead him to ask Miss Waldo, in a letter of October 8, a startling question that was both a command and a sanction: "Why do you not begin to teach?" Thereby hangs a tale, which we can, I think, take time here to relate.

It had been Mrs. Bull's suggestion in a letter to Mr. Goodwin that Swami Saradananda come to America from London to participate in the summer lecture courses at Greenacre, Maine.'* Goodwin replied to her on May 18: "I received your letter with reference to Greenacre this morning, & told the Swami [Saradananda] the contents. He asked me to speak to Mr Sturdy about it; he had rather an idea that Mr Sturdy might have some objection to his going as he had brought him to England. I spoke to Mr Sturdy at once, & after I had told him as I best could what Greenacre was, & the nature of the work, he was perfectly agreeable that he should go." "As to the cost of his passage," Goodwin continued, "it would seem from your letter that with the funds Miss Farmer has at her disposal & Mr. Flagg's offer this will be met. Mr Sturdy has offered to advance the cost, but the Swami Vivekananda, I think, would rather Mr Sturdy were not asked to do this. You will know which you consider the best plan.. . . I must ask you to excuse me for entering into the money question, but I think you would rather I told you as fully as possible the arrangement which would best please the Swami [Vivekananda]._x000d_ _x000d_ * For details regarding the summer sessions at Greenacre see Prophetic Mission - 2, chapter eleven, section two. In the summer of I896 Dr. Lewis G. Janes established and conducted the Monsalvat School of Comparative Religion, which was held during the month of August in conjunction with the Greenacre Lecture Conference under the "Lysekloster Pines"-- a pine grove named by Mrs. Bull after her home in Norway.

"Most undoubtedly the only plan is that the Swami Sarada¬nanda should be entirely under the care of Dr Janes. The Swami Viv. Has the highest opinion of Dr Janes, both as regards his ability to make Swami Sar. Comfortable, & as to his wisdom in the conduct of the work. I take it that the idea of his going to Greenacre is mainly to give the practical side of Raja Yoga-& for this an entire absence of contention or of wire pulling would be necessary. I think he would be more likely to find this peaceful atmosphere with Dr Janes than with anyone else I have in my mind. And the Swami, you may take for granted, will advise his brother Swami to leave everything in the way of arrangements-everything barring the actual teaching-in the hands of Miss Farmer & Dr Janes.

Mr. Goodwin could not have hinted more pointedly that the officers and workers of the New York Vedanta Society should have no claim upon Swami Saradananda. Mr. William Flagg, a wealthy New Yorker who has entered this history earlier, had made his offer to pay for Swami Saradananda's passage to America through Miss Waldo, thus involving the Society. Whether or not Mrs. Bull understood Goodwin's message, Swami Saradananda's passage (some fifty dollars) was paid for entirely by Boston money, a circumstance that was later to have tactical import.

Sailing from England on June 27, the Swami and Mr. Goodwin, whom Swamiji sent along, arrived in New York on or about July 2. Earlier, Goodwin had written to Mrs. Bull in connection with their arrival in America, "I will bring [the Swami] direct to Boston without staying the night in New York. If it will be convenient to you & to your pleasure I will take him out to Cambridge. If not, he could stay with me until time for him to be handed over to Dr. Janes. We do not know, nor does it matter, whether or not Swami Saradananda was taken directly to Cambridge, but the part of Goodwin's plan that would spirit him through New York without so much as a nod to anyone there, was no doubt carried out as well as possible. From the very beginning, Mr. Goodwin was biased. Ever since the difference in opinion between the New York and the Boston people-specifically, between Miss Waldo and Mrs. Bull-regarding the publication of Swamiji's books and pamphlets, this dedicated young man, whose handlebar mustache and experience in the world, as well as his ability and intelligence, made him seem older and perhaps wiser than he was, had felt a certain animosity toward Miss Wal'do and very likely toward other New York workers as well; accordingly, he had allied himself with Mrs. Bull. In April of 1896 he had been her house guest for ten days or so, and it was not unnatural that during that happy time he had become her assistant in connection with Swamiji's American work (Miss Waldo would have said "her tool").

But however that may have been, the next we learn is that Swami Saradananda was at Greenacre, where he lectured on the afternoon of July 7 on "The Vedanta Philosophy." It was his first public lecture in the Western world-indeed; his first anywhere in the world-but Swamiji had prepared him for it by having him deliver talks to the little household at 63 St. George's Road. He passed his first test in America with flying colors. Two weeks or so later, after the Swami had held a number of classes at Greenacre, Goodwin wrote to the Brahma¬vadin of his success. This letter, dated July 23, 1896, appeared in the issue of August 29 and read in part:

The Swami Saradananda began his work on July 7th, with a lecture in which he gave a general presentation of the Vedanta, with the particulars of which I need not deal, excepting to add that he not only received a thoroughly sympathetic hearing for this, his first lecture in the West, but impressed people with the feeling that both from his manner, and the matter of his address, he had much to give them. The following day he began a series of classes on alternate week-days in Raja-Yoga, to many who are systematically earnestly pursuing this method. From the theoretical instruction in Raja-Yoga, he next took up the subject of Karma-Yoga, in which he is now engaged, and this will be followed by Bhakti-Yoga, but the private instruction in Raja-Yoga will continue throughout the conference, which will last altogether for two months.

Writing of Swami Saradananda to Mrs. Bull, John Fox, who had often talked with him in London, spoke of him with the affection so many felt for him in response to his calm warmth and understanding:_x000d_ _x000d_ I like Saradananda very much. He is exceedingly kind and thoughtful of other people, very quiet and reserved usually, though not without humor. From his clearness in answering questions and readiness to help, I think he will succeed as a teacher, though he has done no such work as yet, [in London] at least.

Goodwin had been equally enthusiastic, informing Mrs. Bull that the new Swami was_x000d_ _x000d_ of a retiring, modest nature . . . but has evidently given his whole energies toward realization, & I should say had made enviable progress on the way. He is an able Sanskrit scholar, speaks quite as good English as Swami V., & has a very intimate knowledge of the Vedanta as our Swami, although in a combative sense probably he is not so strong. Raja Yoga however he is thoroughly competent to teach. He was. with Swami V. for six years, & says he owes the greater part of his knowledge to him. He has been a Sanyassin about ten years. . . . To sum up, he is a good man, in the best sense of the word, & I find his presence & association with him, almost, if not quite, as helpful as I do that of the Swami Vivekananda. He will, I have not the least doubt, succeed in endearing himself to his class.

The Swami did indeed endear himself to everyone in America-in Boston, Greenacre, and New York alike; he was himself so loving, he was inevitably loved. Today one knows Swami Saradananda best-if not entirely-as the first Secretary of the Ramakrishna Order, an indefatigable worker, imperturbably shouldering the immense responsibilities of his position, always compassionate, yet also stern and awesome in his spiritual greatness. He was the Holy Mother's attendant, or, as he humbly called himself, her "doorkeeper," upon whom she depended for everything; he was the author of the monumental book Sri Sri Ramakrishna Lilaprasanga (Sri Ramakrishna, the Great Master); he was one of the direct disciples whose names fill us with reverence. But in 1896, Swami Saradananda was barely thirty years old, retiring and modest, as Mr. Goodwin said, or, as Swamiji said, "with nothing of that pluck and go which I have . . . Always dreamy and gentle and sweet! That won't do. But it did very well in America, where nothing disturbed him and where his very presence tended to bring peace. His photographs of that period show the serenity, purity, and selflessness of one who sees only the hand of God in every circumstance. And there were to be circumstances in America that would require that steady vision.

The trouble started with (but was not directly caused by) what can be called the Greenacre Circular. As we have noted more than once, Swamiji had placed Mrs. Bull in charge of the American work; she now attempted to reorganize it along lines that seemed to her to be workable and desirable. It was the New York work that she felt was most in need of a plan on the basis of which Swami Saradananda could conduct his teaching there and the Vedanta movement could grow. The existing organization-the Vedanta Society of which Miss Mary Phillips was secretary, Mr. Walter Goodyear, treasurer, and Miss Waldo, untitled but ever-present worker-was not, in fact, a particularly strong and cohesive group such as could support and promote the young Vedanta movement. There were no headquarters, no one to take full charge, and little cooperation. As Miss Waldo would write the following year to Swami Saradananda (who was then in Cambridge), the Committee that had come into being in New York in the early part of 1896 had not survived as an efficient body of workers. "I am afraid," she warned him, "you will have quite a hard problem to deal with in the matter of a Com¬mittee. And, Swami, it is not of the slightest earthly use to draw up any rules to govern such a Com. Because any Com. Needing rules to govern it w'd never follow those rules, if it had them. What we need, is to find a few people capable of governing themselves, & able to act together in harmony & love, not continually getting jealous of each other, or trying to outwit each other. Where such people are to be found, only Heaven knows! If the Lord does not send them to us, we must get along as best we can without a Com.

SEASON 1896-7_x000d_ _x000d_ It has been urged that at the conclusion of his work at Greenacre the Swami Saradananda shall meet the Swami Vivekananda's class in New York, and continue instruction in the Vedanta there, with the possible pros-pect of his visiting other centres in which the Swami Vivekananda has laid a foundation. In order that his work may be carried on to the best advantage, without loss of time, it is suggested that quarters shall be taken in New York which shall serve as a permanent centre for the presentation of the Vedanta Philosophy. To effect this proposal your cooperation and help are invited._x000d_ The plan suggested is, briefly, as follows:_x000d_ (1) That a four-roomed flat shall be secured at a prob-able rental of $500 per annum. Two of the rooms to be devoted to the use of the Swami Saradananda and his assistant when in New York, the remaining two to serve as a reading room and library._x000d_ (2) That a library be secured, the nucleus of which shall include standard publications in English of Vedic literature, Buddhism, Sankhya, the Sacred Books of the East, and the works of the leading Occidental Philos-ophers and Metaphysicians. We have reason to believe that a ready response will be made to an appeal for contributions of books of this nature._x000d_ (3) For the privilege of using this library and reading room, it is suggested that there shall be a nominal sub-scription of $1.00 per annum, which will further give members the right to attend¬_x000d_ (a) Fortnightly meetings for the reading and mutual discussion of the Vedanta Sutras and kindred books._x000d_ (b) Lectures in the alternate weeks by scholars of standing. It is hoped that a strong program of lecturers may be secured (where possible,) or of papers (where it would not be possible for the writer to attend in person.) Class teaching of the Vedanta to be given by qualified Sanscrit scholars only. These lectures to be open to the general public on admission fee of twenty-five cents._x000d_ It is expected that a considerable part of the necessary revenue will be met in the Following way:_x000d_ From Subscribers $100 00 _x000d_ Admission to the lectures and voluntary con¬tri-_x000d_ butions at discussions, for the season $100 00_x000d_ Sale of the Swami Vivekananda's literature $100 00_x000d_ ________ _x000d_ $300 00_x000d_ _x000d_ This estimate leaves a balance to be met of $200.00. We may add that the personal service necessarily con-nected with such a library for certain hours of the day and evening, and for the assistance of the Swami Sarada-nanda, for the season 1896-7 has been offered to and accepted by the Swami Vivekananda, and approved by Mr. Sturdy, in the person of Mr. J. J. Goodwin. If this co-operative plan appeals to a sufficient number of the friends of Swami Vivekananda resident in. New York and elsewhere, they are invited to correspond with Mr. Goodwin, who may be addressed as below. Mr. Good-win's services at Greenacre have been most acceptable._x000d_ 1f this plan meets with a sufficient response, Mr. Sturdy will be asked to extend the leave of absence, already so generously granted to Swami Saradananda from his London work for the benefit of the Greenacre School of Comparative Religions._x000d_ Sarah J. Farmer. Lea Bull Vaughan._x000d_ Lewis G. Janes. Emma C. Thursday. _x000d_ Jehanghier D. Cola. Annie A. Haines. _x000d_ Keijiro Nakamura, Tokio,_x000d_ Japan. Sara G. Farwell. _x000d_ M. L. Holbrook. Francis Keefe._x000d_ Elizabeth L. Hamlen. RuthEllis _x000d_ Mary H. Whitwell. L. L. Wight._x000d_ S. Ellen Waldo. Sara C. Bull_x000d_ _x000d_ The undersigned, having heard the Swami Saradananda's expositions of the Vedanta Philosophy in the School of Comparative Religions at Greenacre, take pleasure in testifying to its clearness and value to all interested in the comparative study of religions. [There follows a list of seventeen names almost the same as those who had signed the proposed plan.]_x000d_ P.S. It is proposed that those who wish shall be regarded as Associate members of the rooms spoken of in the circular herewith, and that they shall be entitled to correspondence relating to the Vedanta, and questions arising out Of the Vedanta. If therefore there are any at the Greenacre Conference who wish to take this interest in the movement, I shall be glad to receive their names. We hope that the rooms will be taken and the library established from October 1st next, and those whose names are handed to me will be communicated with upon the subject in due course. An annual subscription of $1.00 is suggested._x000d_ J. J. Goodwin, Greenacre Inn._x000d_ Letters addressed to me, Care of Mr. W. Goodyear, 1418 Broadway, New York City, will find me after the close of this Conference.

At the close of his [Greenacre] work here, (the Swami Saradananda] has arranged to meet the Swami Vivekananda's classes in New York, and to continue the latter's work there, and I have no doubt other work will be found for him. He has one object at heart, to assist and to develop the work Of his Guru Bhai, and the unassuming and yet energetic manner in which he is doing his work is creating a profound impression.

Things seemed propitious. "The Swami (Saradananda] invited a discussion of the New York plans," Goodwin wrote on August 21 from Greenacre to Mrs. Bull (who came and went, spending much of her time in her daughter's home in Sharon, Massachusetts), ". . . And I am glad to say he coincides thoroughly with the idea of keeping the rooms free entirely from intrusion-making them a small Mat[h]; in fact. He will support me in this & I think there will be no further difficulty in the matter. Very clearly, this had reference to Miss Waldo, who had been much in evidence, indeed indispensable, the previous year. As for Miss Waldo herself, she was attending the Greenacre Conference with her friends Ruth Ellis and Dr. Wight and had come to know and deeply appreciate Swami Saradananda; she was amenable therefore to any plan that would further his New York work and quite readily accepted Mr. Goodwin's assumption of authority .“Miss Waldo yesterday told me she wanted to talk to me about New York," Goodwin wrote to Mrs. Bull on August 29, during another of her absences from Greenacre. "She was prepared to work there at my direction or, if the work is not opened there, to help Abhayananda in Brooklyn. I told her I hoped she wd not neglect Abhayananda. It will probably solve that difficulty. And again on the same date, "Miss Waldo made a remark to me just now to the effect that she hoped I was going to have entire control of the New York Centre. If she remains in this idea I can make any steps I take to prevent the difficulties we were speaking of from occurring personal to myself, and in that way I think I can manage Miss Waldo.

Nor did Miss Mary Phillips, secretary of the New York Vedanta Society, object to Goodwin's control over the work. "We were pleased with the idea of having a permanent head¬quarters with Mr. G. in charge," she would write in retrospect a few months later to Mrs. Bull, "and spoke to everyone about his great interest in the work, and that he had stated that he was willing even to devote his personal earnings if needed to its maintenance, &c. &c.

In pursuance of the New York plan, Mrs. Bull wrote a long letter to Mr. and. Mrs. Leggett and Miss MacLeod, all three of whom were spending the summer at Ridgely Manor. Her letter, dated August 29, invited them to become associate members of the rooms and set forth in detail her ideas in regard to the way the American Vedanta work should be administered and coordinated. She also, though obliquely, expressed her criticisms of the way the New York work had been conducted in the past. Her letter, too long to be quoted here in full, read in part:

Being rather peculiarly placed and coming in touch personally as I have with all "sorts and conditions" of men as it were, at all the points nearby where Vivekananda has lectured, it gives me a certain sense of responsibility toward it, and possibly some means of determining the right workers and the work's need of them. As the best artist without the right business management is lost as it were, so Vivekananda in the hands of some people is positively injured even. . . .

It seems to me right that the Hindus should be able to follow their own custom of giving their religious teaching without price. But this means that it must be provided for and also that it shall not be made valueless, as the best work of either artist or teacher may be when given improperly to those to direct or receive who do not appreciate it at its true value and quality.

Now as to the essentials, I wonder if you will agree with me?_x000d_ First-that all teaching shall be qualified in that a knowledge of Sanskrit and the discipline of a life that has had a noviciate's probation is essential to the real teachers' vocation._x000d_ Second-that where practicable the men shall be assisted by personal attendants at their quarters who are men. . . . _x000d_ _x000d_ Third-that such means as shall be contributed shall be in the hands of a Treasurer so well-known as to make all feel that the quarters are cared for in a way that prevents narrow dictation, or the turning into limited, personal ways this broad basic philosophy required by all our sects and students if made known to them in its true scope.

I wrote Vivekananda some time since, that I was willing that my own contribution should go entire this year to N.Y.* Since Mr. Goodwin was to be in charge, should it prove needful, to enable the work there to be rightly placed, I have had opportunities of testing Mr. G's fitness. He writes well concerning the philosophy, he is an indefatigable worker, loves Vivekananda personally, but in the broad way, I believe of welcoming other workers and helping them...._x000d_ * For somewhat manipulative reasons, Mrs. Bull wanted Swamiji to say that her donation was his, offered to him for the work by "a friend." His letter from Switzerland, dated August 23, I896 (Complete Works, 370-72), was in part a manifestly irritated reply to and rejection of this idea. Her letter, typically opaque and illegible to boot, read as follows:_x000d_ ". . . If Mr. Goodwin's plan of New York quarters seems the best plan to you and you would like to add the Vedanta loan to your credit with me for the support of Saradananda & the quarters in New York, either in whole or in part, to the effect of $500-five hundred dollars-I will be glad to replace it, and it_x000d_ would perhaps be best for you to say to Mr. Goodwin that you have such an amount from a friend for the work and let him receive it from and account to you ? It will leave him free, if not related in his mind to anyone but yourself._x000d_ "I see that you do not find anything in Dr. Janes' work at I68 Brattle St with informal, unorganized methods that calls for the cooperation of yourself and Mr. Sturdy. It seems to be best that Saradananda who should represent you always and also Mr. Sturdy through whose courtesy he is here should not be asked for assistance very kindly offered him to Dr. Janes._x000d_ "I will suggest to Dr. Janes that you will possibly first find the need of New York and other centres requiring Saradananda's time, and that when that has been met you will be likely if you think it best to yourself suggest the presence and scholarship of Saradananda to him for the Conferences. I will also tell him that you do not find it best no doubt for yourself and Mr. Sturdy to accept even a corresponding membership of the Home Conferences at Brattle St…."

I am suggesting to him not to hasten matters in N.Y. First, I am confident that Vivekananda on his return from Switzerland will give his best. His Talks and Lectures ought to be saved towards the permanent literature of the Vedanta. Personally I am desirous of this and willing to send Mr. G. over for October to secure this material which no one can & will do as himself. . . .

. . . I will like if it is possible to have some definite plan as to the means & methods for future work, something to which we may all attend, and then have Vivekananda clearly understand & accept, that we may work without loss of strength or money, as, I have had to do at various times here to keep his interests from direct harm.

It seems to be necessary that some one of character and means should be Treasurer. I am not willing to place my friends in a position towards the Vedanta that I regret having to accept myself, of having my contributions of money and service sometimes seriously misapplied through a lack of fit workers and direction. It is necessary that Mr. Goodwin if he takes the responsibility for a season in N.Y. with good results, should have the intelligent support of V's friends, unhindered by interference and criticism such as I have met personally myself. My own experience teaches me the means to make the conditions practicable for him._x000d_ [Here Mrs. Bull suggested that Mr. Goodwin be paid, so that he would not have to spend time and energy in supporting himself. Mr. Goodwin, reading a draft of her letter, asked her to make it clear that he would accept only a bare living.]

I will try to see you all if possible, if these suggestions meet your approval as to what is needed in the way of putting the work on a permanent basis without the limita¬tions of an organization, which I believe will be better avoided & is in agreement with the Sanyasi principles. A Treasurer and Resident assistant being the only appointments necessary for the year, and these may be made, of course, by Vivekananda himself. These are the main features it seems to me to be considered; and these to be put into definite business shape and practice. Mr. Goodwin has thought of going immediately to N.F. to begin there. I advise him to go to England for October, and meantime we can in October and November, give the Swami Saradananda a house and work in Cambridge.

Mrs. Bull may have had Mr. Leggett, or perhaps herself, in mind for a suitable treasurer. In any case, for reasons that are not clear, Mr. Walter Goodyear, the incumbent treasurer, seems to have been out of favor. Even Mr. Goodwin was angry with him, though this had more to do with the magazine Goodwin was proposing to start in America than with the Society's accounts. It would seem that Mr. Goodyear (the American agent for the Brahmavadin, as well as treasurer) had written to Swamiji, pointing out (among other things) the financial impracticality of launching another and ambitious magazine in America when back issues of the Brahmavadin were piling up in his storeroom for lack of subscribers. Swamiji agreed with the wisdom of this and, as he wrote to Mr. Sturdy on August 12 from Switzerland, "suggested [to the American people] that instead of having too many papers, they may start by putting in a few sheets in the Brahmavadin-written in America-and raise the subscription a little which will cover the American expenses. Mr. Goodyear, a man of experience in handling money, had apparently raised other objections, as well, to the new plan of work, opposing it on practical grounds.*_x000d_ _x000d_ * Mr. Goodwin's letters of this period in I896 are not at present available, but their import can be inferred from Swamiji's letter of August I2 (Complete Works, 8:387), and Goodwin's letter of September I, I896, to Mrs. Bull (SCB).

I have received the enclosed from Mr. Goodyear. I have replied to him that I am trying to carry out the Swami's own wishes. I am sorry Mr. Goodyear wrote him as he did, because it seems that whatever the Swami proposes for the work the financial difficulty is flaunted in his face._x000d_ Besides, Mr. Goodyear had no right to raise this difficulty without first asking me with reference to it. I think in any case it would have been well if he had sent me a copy of the letter when mailing it to the Swami. The Swami, in business matters, always accepts the last suggestion made to him. I could write to him now with an absurd & entirely impracticable suggestion with the perfect confidence of securing his approval for it._x000d_ These letters have in no way altered my determination to proceed with the work, especially as the Swami's letter gives an idea that this is his ideal. I fail to see how the Brahmavadin, which cannot get a circulation at $2.00 will do so at $3.00._x000d_ Perhaps you will give me your view of the matter when you come up on Wednesday. I feel that the time has come when I should formulate an idea for work for the Swami [Saradananda] & simply carry it through with whatever support I am able to get. It is simply impossible to propose a plan which will be universally accepted.

Despite Walter Goodyear's negative financial outlook, a contribution for the proposed rooms was forthcoming-or, at least, was under consideration. On the strength of the Circular, Mr. Leggett had expressed a willingness to give "substantial aid" to the New York work and wished to discuss the matter with Goodwin. Accordingly, the two men met in New York on September 8, a meeting during which Mr. Leggett, an astute businessman, no doubt questioned the younger man minutely, making his own position crystal clear. He gave no promises, left no room for misunderstanding, and requested Goodwin to put the result of their meeting in writing. Goodwin dutifully did so:

Dear Mr. Leggett,_x000d_ _x000d_ The outcome of [our] conversation, as I took it, was that although you will be interested in whatever work is undertaken, for the sake of your regard for the Swami Vivekananda, you are not willing to be held responsible for it in any way-either financially or otherwise. You will be prepared to consider a request to contribute towards the cost of obtaining quarters for the furtherance of the work, but do not wish it to be understood that you will exceed the amount you then contribute should an occasion arise for a further request for funds. Neither do you wish your name to be connected with whatever you do._x000d_ If I am connected with the work, as seems probable, I shall personally take pleasure in seeing that your wishes on these points are respected

Meanwhile, Swamiji, travelling in Switzerland, received a packet of the Greenacre Circulars. His reaction to them was not auspicious; indeed it boded ill for the whole projected plan. In a postscript to his letter of August 23 from Lucerne, he wrote:

If Goodwin and Saradananda can spread the work in U.S. God speed to them. They are in no way bound to me or to Sturdy or to anybody else. It was an awful mistake in the Greenacre programme about Saradananda that he was there by the kind permission of Sturdy.* Who is Sturdy or any body else to permit a sanyasin? Sturdy himself laughed at it and was sorry too. It was one piece of folly nothing short of that. It was an insult to Sturdy and would have proved serious for my work if it had reached India. Fortunately I tore all those notices to pieces and threw them in the gutter and wondered whether it was the celebrated "yankee" good manners the English people delight in talking about. Even so I am no Master to any sanyasins in the world; they do whatever it suits them and if I can I help them, that is all my connection with them. I have given up the bondage of iron the family tie; I am not to take up the gold chain of religious brotherhood.... If N.Y. needs Vedanta or Boston or any other place in the U.S. they will receive them and keep them and provide for them._x000d_ _x000d_ * In addition to the Circular, a seven page leaflet was distributed at Greenacre, most of which-a reprint from "a little pamphlet published by Mr. E. T. Sturdy, in England"-explained the importance of the study of Eastern thought in the West and Swamiji's role in expounding it. The last paragraph, however, was purely of American (and possibly of Mrs. Bull's) composition. It read:_x000d_ "Swami Saradananda, of the same brotherhood of faith as the Swami Vivekananda, is highly commended for his personal qualities and ability as a teacher by competent persons in England, where he has been teaching for some time under the auspices of Mr. E. T. Sturdy, of High View Caversham, Reading. The managers of the Greenacre School of Comparative Religion are deeply indebted to Mr. Sturdy for his kindness in giving the Swami Saradananda leave of absence to assist in the Greenacre work." Whether or not Swamiji saw this leaflet in addition to the Circular is not known._x000d_ _x000d_ (Swamiji vehemently underscored the italicized words in the above paragraph three, four, and, in the instance of the word Master, five times.)

Mrs. Bull wrote at once to Mr. Sturdy: had she indeed insulted him? He replied consolingly, "The matter you write of is a very small one. Probably in America the whole matter would pass unnoticed, but to any body acquainted with the East it implies the difference between a Sanyasin-one who works for love & duty & not for any other consideration and a pandita-one who can be hired by paying him, supporting him &c. But whether or not the matter would pass un¬noticed in America, those Circulars had been torn up and thrown into the gutter by a hand that could not err even in a gesture. Something worse than a blunder in wording was wrong. _x000d_ Indeed, no sooner had the Circulars been widely distributed and thoroughly read, no sooner had the plan they set forth been approved by numbers of Swamiji's New York friends and students than the whole project grew uncertain in Mrs. Bull's mind. If Goodwin should return to England for the month of October (as she felt he should), then Swami Saradananda's proposed work in New York must (she also felt) await Goodwin's return; otherwise the old management would continue as before. As far as Mrs. Bull was concerned, Swami Saradananda could work through October, and perhaps through November, as beneficially in Cambridge as in New York. (Later on, Goodwin would point out to Swamiji that since the Boston people had paid Swami Saradananda's passage to America they "were entitled to first claim on him. The fact that both the Greenacre Circular and Goodwin's letter to the Brahmauadin had announced clearly that the Swami would meet Swami Vivekananda's class in New York "at the conclusion of his work at Greenacre"-or by October 1 at the latest did not seem to disturb either Mrs. Bull or Goodwin. Neither of them notified the New York people of a change in plan.

It was not until Miss Phillips wrote to Mrs. Bull in late September, inquiring when Swami Saradananda was coming, that Mr. Goodwin replied, on Mrs. Bull's behalf, that the Swami would probably come to New York around the first of November. This letter, which is not extant, but which Miss Phillips irately quoted from again and again, was dated earlier than September 22, but not much earlier. It was Miss Phillips's first indication that the plans for New York were by no means definite. Placed in what was, to say the least, an awkward position, she was incensed. On October 4, she again wrote to Mrs. Bull:

There has been a great deal of inquiry about the Vedanta Classes in New York. Mr. Goodwin wrote that "To those who ask I believe you can say that the Swami Saradananda will be in New York probably about the 1st of November." This is so very vague and indefinite after the previous statement that a flat would be taken here in September for a library and classes, that we are puzzled to know what to do, or, say to inquirers._x000d_ Has there been a complete change of plans? Kindly keep me posted._x000d_ Will Saradananda alternate a few weeks at a time between Cambridge and New York, or what can we depend upon from him?_x000d_ We, of course, prefer to have him continue the work of Swami Vivekananda if possible, before seeking another Teacher.

This last paragraph was a threat-polite but scarcely veiled. In her earlier letter to Mrs. Bull (which Goodwin had answered) Miss Phillips had enclosed a note she had received from a friend in Chicago regarding a Mr. Chattopadhyaya. In his reply Mr. Goodwin had directed Miss Phillips to "give (Chattopadhyaya] absolutely no encouragement with regard to the Vedanta work in this country."Mr. J. C. Chattopadhyaya (called "Roy" for short)* was a Theosophist soon to arrive in America from England, where he had called on on Swamiji. "The Swami positively & firmly declined to have anything to do with him [in London]," Goodwin informed Mrs. Bull, "and told us afterwards that there were strong reasons why it would not do to allow of any connection between them. Mohin [Mahendra] was at the Theosophical Society offices the same evening of the same day & heard Roy speaking in the most insulting way of the Swami. For these reasons I have written to Miss Phillips. And Mr. Goodwin fully expected Miss Phillips to heed his instructions._x000d_ * Clear evidence thatJ. C. Chattopadhyaya and Roy were the same person is contained in the letter Miss Phillips's friend wrote to her from Chicago on September I5, I896. It read in part:_x000d_ "I am glad to be able to write you that the young Brahmin J. Chattopadhyaya (we call him Roy for short) who has been in England for the past year, is now on his way to Chicago. He is probably to arrive in N.Y. next Sat. on the St. Louis, & be the guest of Mr. Alex Fullerton of the Am. Sec. of T.S. [American Section of the Theosophical Society] for 2 or 3 days before starting for Chicago. I have written giving him your address & also the address of Mr. Goodyear, as I am as is he very desirous of his meeting you. He is in entire oneness with our Swami Vivekananda & their teachings seem the same. If Saradananda or the lady monks are in N.Y. I hope he will meet them...."

Meanwhile, he and Swami Saradananda had left Greenacre and gone first to Sharon, Massachusetts, where Mrs. Bull's daughter, Olea, lived, and then to a resort hotel in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in a small town called Lisbon, where they stayed from September 17 to 28. "I believe we are curing the Swami's malaria," Goodwin would write to Mrs. Bull. "He is taking long walks, & yesterday & to-day I have enticed him into Wells [River]. He likes it exceedingly.

On October 8, the day he started his classes in London, he replied, solving all problems with a few clear and definite words. This letter from Wimbledon, parts of which have been published in the Complete Works and often quoted, acquires its full import only when read against the background noise that it effectively silenced; thus it will bear repeating here in part. The following is quoted from the original, substantial parts of which have not heretofore been known:

What about Saradananda? Where is he now? What about Goodwin? I am quite in the dark about their movements. I hear Goodwin was coming over to London -I have no intimation yet._x000d_ What about the N.Y. work?_x000d_ Can not Saradananda work at both places i.e. both Boston and Newyork. I will be very glad if that is possible. For N.Y. is not to be neglected, and then although I am in all sympathy with the various branches of religious and social work [with which Mrs. Bull's Cambridge Con-ferences were concerned], I find that specification of work is absolutely necessary. Our special branch is to preach Vedanta. Helping in other work should be subordi¬nate to that one ideal. I hope you will inculcate this into the mind of S. very strongly._x000d_ This winter will be his first in a cold climate and I do not think his chest is strong. So I hope you will kindly see that he does not suffer from cold for want of clothes. . . . _x000d_ I will write later on fuller._x000d_ It is needless fear for me to state that you have my implicit confidence in all works in the U.S. and that [I] entrust everything there to you.

The second event that took place during Swamiji’s stay at Wimbledon and of which we have definite knowledge was a lecture he gave at Airlie Lodge to a gathering of the town’s residents. In the Life it is said that Swamiji delivered two lectures at Miss Muller’s house during this period, but at the present time we have information of only one – almost certainly the second, given on October 6. The only Wimbledon paper that mentioned Swamiji’s lectures was the newborn Post, which came into existence on October 9, 1896. Its first issue carried the following article, the body of which can be found in volume one of the Complete Works, under the title “Vedanta as a factor in civilization.” Quoted below are the first and last paragraphs of the Post’s write-up, which have been omitted from the Complete Works but which set the scene:_x000d_ THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE VEDAS._x000d_ A Glimpse at Hindu Spiritualism._x000d_ By kind invitation of Miss Muller, some 30 or 40 residents, nearly all ladies, gathered at Airlie-lodge,_x000d_ Ridgeway-gardens, on Tuesday afternoon, for the purpose of hearing an address by the Swami Vivekananda, a native of India, on the “Philosophy of the Vedas.” Mr. J.F. Schwann, J.P., presided, and in introducing the Swami, mentioned that Miss Muller, to whose kindness they were indebted for the discourse they were about to listen to, had been in India for some time and had interested herself very much in the religions of that country, and especially in the different branches of the Hindu belief. She accordingly took great interest in the course of lectures which the Swami had been giving in America and England, and he was sure they felt very grateful to her, for having placed her room at their disposal that afternoon. His own knowledge of the subject which was to be dealt with was exceedingly vague, and he expected it was the same with a great many of them. _x000d_ The Swami then commenced his address, which, eloquent throughout, was listened to with greatest intentness and appreciation. [There followed the excerpt from Swamiji’s talk that appears in the Complete Works. The article then concluded:]_x000d_ At the close of the address, Mr. Schwann cordially thanked the Swami, on behalf of all present, for the intellectual pleasure he had afforded them, and announced that he had expressed a desire to form some classes in Wimbledon. They would be free and meet at Airleie-lodge by the kindness of Mrs. [sic] Muller.

Within the first two weeks of his stay he gave two drawing-room lectures, at the first of which a Mr. J. F. Schwann presided, and the audience, composed mainly of society women, crowded the room. The Swami spoke on "Vedanta as a Factor in Civili-zation". The lecture was a great success and was followed by the opening of regular Monday afternoon classes in Wimbledon, in which the Swami gave both private and general instructions, teaching many people the principles of Raja-Yoga and the prac-tices of meditation.

I thought perhaps you would like to know that it is decided that I go to England by the Teutonic on Wednesday [October 7]…. I don't think I shall be in New York until Wednesday morning, by the Fall River boat. I should think it would be safe to leave booking until then. I shall risk it, at any rate._x000d_ I want to thank you for showing me that letter of the Swami's (perhaps Swamiji's ecstatic letter of July 6 to Mr. Leggett; see chapter eleven, section four]. If there could possibly be nobler language than that I am not ready for it. Indeed I am not ready for this-it makes me think & think of the distance between the Swami & myself, but, at the same time, I should be low down indeed if it were not an inspiration for good to me. Shall I shock you very much if I tell you that the Swami takes the place of Christ to me? I think not, for you will understand what I mean.

On the night of October 6, the day Swamiji probably gave this lecture, he wrote to Sister Christine. His letter, heretofore unpublished, read in full:

To Sister Christine_x000d_ Airlie Lodge, Ridgeway Gardens_x000d_ Wimbledon, England_x000d_ October 6, 1896_x000d_ Dear Christina,_x000d_ I am sure you got my letter from Switzerland._x000d_ I am now in London, back after having travelled through Germany and Holland._x000d_ How are things going with you? Had you a nice summer? How are you physically and spiritually? How is Mrs. Fhunkey [Funke] and all the other friends? Have you any news of Baby? Where is Kr [Kripananda] and what is he doing now?_x000d_ I have another Sannyasin over here with me now, who will work here whilst I am away to India, where I go this winter._x000d_ I will write to you in extenso later; tonight it is so late and I am so weary._x000d_ With all love and blessings,_x000d_ Yours,_x000d_ Vivekananda

People who are capable of seeing only the gross external aspect of things can perceive in the Indian nation only a conquered and suffering people, a race of dreamers and philosophers. They seem to be incapable of perceiving that in the spiritual realm India conquers the world. No doubt it is true that just as the too active Western mind would profit by an admixture of Eastern introspection and the meditative habit, so the Eastern would benefit by a somewhat greater activity and energy. Still we must ask: What may be that force which causes this afflicted and suffering people, the Hindu, and the Jewish too (the two races from which have originated all the great religions of the world) to survive, when other nations perish? The cause can only be their spiritual force. The Hindus are still living though silent, the Jews are more numerous today than when they lived in Palestine. The philosophy of India percolates throughout the whole civilised world, modifying and permeating as it goes. So also in ancient times, her trade reached the shores of Africa before Europe was known, and opened communication with the rest of the world, thus disproving the belief that Indians never went outside of their own country._x000d_ It is remarkable also that the possession of India by a foreign power has always been a turning-point in the history of that power, bringing to it wealth, prosperity, dominion, and spiritual ideas. While the Western man tries to measure how much it is possible for him to possess and to enjoy, the Eastern seems to take the opposite course, and to measure how little of material possession he can do with. In the Vedas we trace the endeavour of that ancient people to find God. In their search for Him they came upon different strata; beginning with ancestor worship, they passed on to the worship of Agni, the fire-god, of Indra, the god of thunder, and of Varuna, the God of gods. We find the growth of this idea of God, from many gods to one God, in all religions; its real meaning is that He is the chief of the tribal gods, who creates the world, rules it, and sees into every heart; the stages of growth lead up from a multiplicity of gods to monotheism. This anthropomorphic conception, however, did not satisfy the Hindus, it was too human for them who were seeking the Divine. Therefore they finally gave up searching for God in the outer world of sense and matter, and turned their attention to the inner world. Is there an inner world? And what is it? It is Atman. It is the Self, it is the only thing an individual can be sure of. If he knows himself, he can know the universe, and not otherwise. The same question was asked in the beginning of time, even in the Rig-Veda, in another form: "Who or what existed from the beginning?" That question was gradually solved by the Vedanta philosophy. The Atman existed. That is to say, what we call the Absolute, the Universal Soul, the Self, is the force by which from the beginning all things have been and are and will be manifested._x000d_ While the Vedanta philosophers solved that question, they at the same time discovered the basis of ethics. Though all religions have taught ethical precepts, such as, "Do not kill, do not injure; love your neighbour as yourself," etc., yet none of these has given the reason. Why should I not injure my neighbour? To this question there was no satisfactory or conclusive answer forthcoming, until it was evolved by the metaphysical speculations of the Hindus who could not rest satisfied with mere dogmas. So the Hindus say that this Atman is absolute and all-pervading, therefore infinite. There cannot be two infinites, for they would limit each other and would become finite. Also each individual soul is a part and parcel of that Universal Soul, which is infinite. Therefore in injuring his neighbour, the individual actually injures himself. This is the basic metaphysical truth underlying all ethical codes. It is too often believed that a person in his progress towards perfection passes from error to truth; that when he passes on from one thought to another, he must necessarily reject the first. But no error can lead to truth. The soul passing through its different stages goes from truth to truth, and each stage is true; it goes from lower truth to higher truth. This point may be illustrated in the following way. A man is journeying towards the sun and takes a photograph at each step. How different would be the first photograph from the second and still more from the third or the last, when he reaches the real sun! But all these, though differing so widely from each other, are true, only they are made to appear different by the changing conditions of time and space. It is the recognition of this truth, which has enabled the Hindus to perceive the universal truth of all religions, from the lowest to the highest; it has made of them the only people who never had religious persecutions. The shrine of a Mohammedan saint which is at the present day neglected and forgotten by Mohammedans, is worshipped by Hindus! Many instances may be quoted, illustrating the same spirit of tolerance._x000d_ The Eastern mind could not rest satisfied till it had found that goal, which is the end sought by all humanity, namely, Unity. The Western scientist seeks for unity in the atom or the molecule. When he finds it, there is nothing further for him to discover, and so when we find that Unity of Soul or Self, which is called Atman, we can go no further. It becomes clear that everything in the sense-world is a manifestation of that One Substance. _x000d_ Further, the scientist is brought to the necessity of recognising metaphysics, when he supposes that atoms having neither breadth nor length yet become, when combined, the cause of extension, length, and breadth. When one atom acts upon another, some medium is necessary. What is that medium? It will be a third atom. If so, then the question still remains unanswered, for how do these two act on the third? A manifest reductio ad absurdum. This contradiction in terms is also found in the hypothesis necessary to all physical science that a point is that which has neither parts nor magnitude, and a line has length without breadth. These cannot be either seen or conceived. Why? Because they do not come within the range of the senses. They are metaphysical conceptions. So we see, it is finally the mind which gives the form to all perception. When I see a chair, it is not the real chair external to my eye which I perceive, but an external something plus the mental image formed. Thus even the materialist is driven to metaphysics in the last extremity.

Only within the last week or ten days has there been any idea of the Swami not being in New York from November (see Goodwin's letter of September 22], but for the present I feel it of the utmost importance that the Swami shall not follow in the footsteps of any unauthorized teacher. And as I was sent by the Swami Vivekananda to do what I could for him I have taken the responsibility of advising him to remain in Cambridge the whole of this autumn, & have thus accepted an invitation given to be accepted any time which seemed advisable for the work.

On the same day (October 7) that Goodwin had written to Miss Phillips, informing her that he had advised Swami Saradananda to remain in Cambridge for the rest of the year, he passed quickly and silently through New York, boarded the S.S. Teutonic, and before the somewhat formidable Miss Phillips had time to catch her breath was off and away.

Wimbledon,_x000d_ 8th October, 1896_x000d_ Dear Mrs. Bull,_x000d_ . . . I met in Germany Prof. Deussen. I was his guest at Kiel and we travelled together to London and had some very pleasant meetings here. . . . Although I am in full sympathy with the various branches of religious and social work, I find that specification of work is absolutely necessary. Our special branch is to preach Vedanta. Helping in other work should be subservient to that one ideal. I hope you will inculcate this in the mind of Saradananda very strongly._x000d_ Did you read Max Muller's article on Ramakrishna? . . . Things are working very favourably here in England. The work is not only popular but appreciated._x000d_ Yours affly.,_x000d_ Vivekananda

Airlie Lodge, Ridgeway Gardens,_x000d_ Wimbledon_x000d_ 8th October, 1896_x000d_ Dear (Miss S.E. Waldo),_x000d_ . . . I had a fine rest in Switzerland and made a great friend of Prof. Paul Deussen. My European work in fact is becoming more satisfactory to me than any other work, and it tells immensely on India. The London classes were resumed, and today is the opening lecture. I now have a hall to myself holding two hundred or more. . . . _x000d_ You know of course the steadiness of the English; they are the least jealous of each other of all nations, and that is why they dominate the world. They have solved the secret of obedience without slavish cringing--great freedom with great law-abidingness._x000d_ I know very little of the young man R__. He is a Bengali and can teach a little Sanskrit. You know my settled doctrine. I do not trust any one who has not conquered "lust and gold". You may try him in theoretical subjects, but keep him off from teaching Raja-Yoga--that is a dangerous game except for the regularly trained to play at. Of Saradananda, the blessing of the greatest Yogi of modern India is on him--and there is no danger. Why do you not begin to teach? . . . You have a thousand times more philosophy than this boy R___. Send notices to the class and hold regular talks and lectures._x000d_ I will be thousand times more pleased to see one of you start than any number of Hindus securing success in America--even one of my brethren. "Man wants Victory from everywhere, but defeat from his own children". . . . Make a blaze! Make a blaze!_x000d_ With all love and blessings,_x000d_ Vivekananda

Dear Ellen, _x000d_ Your letter gave me a great deal of information for which many thanks. The good news about Abhayananda [who was successfully teaching in Brooklyn] has pleased me more than anything else. . . . . _x000d_ ... About Swami S[aradananda] I do not see any reason why he cannot work between Boston & New York. We will only have little classes in Boston, &, that too a spice in a hodge podge at best. It must not be forgotten that his duty is to preach Vedanta. I will write to Mrs. Bull to that effect. In the meantime I smell a little of that jealousy that had sprung up between Boston & New York. If you can succeed in smoothing it you will have my heart-full of blessings & your liberation will proceed in compound accelerated motion. . . . I hear that Goodwin is coming over to Eng. I had no letter from him or S[wami] S[saradananda]. . . .I am glad that the young man Roy is in America at last. He came to Sturdy & to me to be taken in. But as for me, I have no funds & Sturdy would not touch a Theosophist. And then this young man has a little desire for money making. None without Vairagyam has any right to preach Vedanta. He is however competent to teach elementary Sanskrit-Gita etc-&, the easy Upanishads. I know very little of him except he is a Bengali. And you know my settled doctrine: I do not trust anyone who has not conquered "lust & gold". You may try him in theoretical subjects, but keep him off from teaching Raja yoga-that is a dangerous game except for the regularly trained to play at. Of Saradananda-the blessing of the greatest yogi of modern India is on him-& there is no danger._x000d_ Why do you not begin to teach? Begin boldly. Mother will give you all power-thousands will come to you. Plunge in. No clinging to this fellow or that. Wherever Ramakrishna's children boldly come out, He is with them. You know a thousand times more philosophy than the boy Roy. There is nothing in Vedanta which you do not know, and you can argue it out & present it infinitely better than this boy. Plunge in bravely. Have faith you will move the world. Send notices to the class & hold regular talks & lectures. Goodyear & the others will back you right along. I will be a thousand times more pleased to see one of you start than any number of Hindus scoring success in America, even be he one of my brethren. "Man wants victory from everywhere but defeat from his own children." I will begin from today sending out powerful thoughts to you all. Make a blaze, make a blaze._x000d_ Yours with all love & blessings _x000d_ V_x000d_ _x000d_ P.S. My love to the Goodyears, Miss Phillips, to Carl Le Vinsen, & all the rest of my friends. What is Van Haagen doing? Miss Ellis & Doctor will back you well-to pur¬pose. Stand on your own feet V.

When you have time to think matters carefully over you will probably realize that you have made several serious mistakes...._x000d_ You seem to consider the great Vedanta Movement, a trifling matter of the petty preferences and wishes of a few people-that you can make engagements and break them at will, as if they were not of the slightest importance, as, worth even a notification or, consultation. This is the more astonishing, as the search for Truth should have its foundation in Truth and trustworthiness._x000d_ Swami Vivekananda's last public lectures attracted wide public attention. There is daily inquiry as to when lectures and classes will begin. . . ._x000d_ Your Circular from Green Acre was read by me to a number. Your article signed "A Disciple," in the last Brahmavadin was read by the subscribers and others, who have called and written. Your evasive answer about the "possibility" of Swami Saradananda's coming in November, in reply to my note sent to Mrs. Bull . . . only seemed to defer the time of his coming. Your leaving for England without making any arrangement, of any kind, for any future time, places us all in an extremely unpleasant and awkward position._x000d_ We do not consider this a personal affair. Our dear Swami Vivekananda's inspired eloquence was not poured forth to "entertain."_x000d_ A great and growing interest in a deep religious movement, in a metropolitan city like this, should not be treated in a flippant, offhand, fast and loose, child's play manner as it has been this fall. . . ._x000d_ It seems incredible that you who seemed so devoted to the movement and whose statements we trusted, should so have betrayed your trust. I learn that you slipped away, without even communicating with a single New York member. I presume that we would have now been left without the courtesy of an announcement that Swami Saradananda would not be allowed to come this winter, had you not felt obliged to answer my note to Mrs. Bull._x000d_ Is this honorable, or, brotherly, or, as you would have us do by you? . . . [I am] more amazed than I can describe._x000d_ Swami Vivekananda worked hard and patiently under manifold discouragements to establish a firm foothold for the Yoga and Vedanta in New York. No Western teacher could command the confidence, or, attention that a Hindu Sannyasin like Saradananda can, in the absence of our Vivekananda._x000d_ A movement like this should not be allowed to die out for want of a teacher, or to sink into a mere literary cult for a favored few._x000d_ Swami Vivekananda returned to America last winter to prevent this, and gave his lectures free to all, rich and poor alike. . ._x000d_ Now, brother Goodwin, what can be done to remedy this remarkable conditions of affairs? For the sake of the Cause, we will keep it from the Reporters of the Newspapers if possible, and do what we can to hold Vedanta Meetings._x000d_ This was the first of many letters of reproach brother Good¬win would receive from Swamiji's irate New York friends.