C/o Lala Hansraj_x000d_ Rawalpindi_x000d_ Oct., 1897_x000d_ Dear M, _x000d_ C'est bon, mon ami --now you are doing just the thing. Come out, man! No sleeping all life; time is flying. Bravo! That is the way._x000d_ Many thanks for your publication. Only, I am afraid it will not pay its way in a pamphlet form. . . . Never mind, pay or no pay--let it see the blaze of daylight. You will have many blessings on you and many more curses--but that is always the way of the world!_x000d_ This is the time._x000d_ Yours in the Lord,_x000d_ Vivekananda

On the day he was to leave Rawalpindi, when he was talking with visitors after the midday meal, one of his brother-monks brought a phaeton for him and said that a Bengali gentleman was ill and that he earnestly wanted to see the Swami. The latter was ready to go at once. With him went Swami Prakashananda and a few others. The man put five questions to the Swami and said that, if he did not receive satisfactory answers to them, he would become an atheist. The Swami took each question, one by one, carefully thrashed them out, and gave his conclusions on them in such a way that the gentleman was fully convinced.

Murree_x000d_ 10th October, 1897_x000d_ {original in Bengali}_x000d_ Dear Rakhal,_x000d_ Reached Murree from Kashmir in the evening of the day before yesterday. Everybody had an enjoyable time of it, only Krishnalal (Dhirananda) and Gupta (Sadananda) suffered now and then from fever, which, however, was but slight. This Address is to be sent to the Raja of Khetri. Have it printed in gilt etc. The Raja is expected at Bombay about the 21st or 22nd of October. None of us is staying at Bombay at present--if there be any, send him a copy so that he may present the same to the Raja even on Board the ship, or somewhere in the city of Bombay. Send the superior copy to Khetri. Have this passed in a meeting and if any change is needed, no harm. Then sign it, all of you, only leaving a blank for my name, and I shall sign it on going to Khetri. Let no pains be spared in this._x000d_ . . . Captain Sevier says he is very anxious for a site. He wishes to have a spot near Mussoorie or in some other central place, as soon as possible. . . . The thing is that we do not want a place which is too cold, at the same time it must not be too hot. Dehra Dun is unbearable in summer, but pleasant in winter; Mussoorie itself is, I dare say, not the right place for many in winter. Above or below it, that is, in British or Garhwal territory, some land is sure to be found. At the same time there must be a supply of water at the place throughout the year, for drinking purposes and for everyday use. My plan is this: With only Achyutananda and Gupta I go from Murree to Rawalpindi, thence to Jammu, thence to Lahore, and from Lahore straight to Karachi. . . . Give my hearty love and blessings to Shashi Babu. I see that Master Mahashaya has buckled to work after such a long time. Give him my special love and greetings. To see him, with his feminine retiringness, stirred to work, my courage has gone up by leaps and bounds. I am writing to him tomorrow even. Victory to the Lord!--To work! To work!_x000d_ Yours affectionately,_x000d_ Vivekananda

Murree,_x000d_ 10th October, 1897_x000d_ {original in Bengali}_x000d_ Dear Sarada,_x000d_ I am sorry to learn from your letter that you are not doing well. If you can make an unpopular man popular, then I call you a clever fellow. There is no prospect of work there in the future; it would have been better had you gone rather to Dacca, or some other place. However, it is a good thing that the work will close in November. If you get very badly off in health, you should better come away. There is much field for work in the Central Provinces; and even without famine, there is no lack of poverty-stricken people in our country. Wherever it is, if you can choose a site with an eye to prospect, you are sure to turn out good work. However, be not sorry. What one does has no destruction--no, never. Who knows, at that very place the future may reap golden results._x000d_ I shall very soon begin my work in the plains. I have now no need of travelling over the mountains._x000d_ Keep watch over your health._x000d_ Yours affectionately,_x000d_ Vivekananda

Murree,_x000d_ 10th October, 1897_x000d_ {original in Bengali}_x000d_ My dear Akhandananda,_x000d_ I am very glad to receive your letter. You need not make a big plan for the present, but do only what is possible under existing circumstances. Gradually the way will open to you. We must certainly have the orphanage, no hesitating in that. We must not leave the girls in the lurch either. But then we must have a lady superintendent for an orphanage of girls. I believe Mother will be a very good hand for that. Or engage for this task some aged widow of the village who has no issue. And there must be separate places for the boys and girls. Captain Sevier is ready to send you money to help in this. Nedou's Hotel, Lahore--that is his address. If you write to him, write the words, "To wait arrival", on the letter. I am soon going to Rawalpindi, tomorrow or the day after; then I visit Lahore and other places via Jammu, and return to Rajputana via Karachi etc.,_x000d_ I am doing well._x000d_ Yours,_x000d_ Vivekananda

Murree_x000d_ 11th October, 1897_x000d_ {original in Bengali}_x000d_ My Dear Rakhal {Brahmananda},_x000d_ I feel I have been working as if under an irresistible impulse for the last ten days, beginning from Kashmir. It may be either a physical or a mental disease. Now I have come to the conclusion that I am unfit for further work. . . . I now understand that I have been very harsh to all of you. But I knew, however, that you would bear with all my shortcomings; in the Math there is no one else who will do so. I have been increasingly harsh to you. Whatever has happened is now past--it is all the result of past Karma. What is the good of my repentance? I do not believe in it. It is all Karma. Whatever of Mother's work was to be accomplished through me, She made me do, and has now flung me aside breaking down my body and mind. Her will be done!_x000d_ Now I retire from all this work. In a day or two I shall give up everything and wander out alone; I shall spend the rest of my life quietly in some place or other. Forgive me if you all will, or do what you like._x000d_ Mrs. Bull has given much of the money. She has implicit confidence in Sharat. Do the work of the Math with Sharat's advice; or do as you will._x000d_ But I have all along been like a hero--I want my work to be quick like lightning, and firm as adamant. Likewise shall I die also. Therefore kindly do my work for me--no question of success or defeat enters here at all. I have never retreated in a fight--shall I now . . . ? There is success and failure in every work. But I am inclined to believe that one who is a coward will be born after death as an insect or a worm, that there is no salvation for a coward even after millions of years of penance. Well, shall I after all be born as a worm? . . . In my eyes this world is mere play--and it will always remain as such. Should one spend six long months brooding over the questions of honour and disgrace, gain and loss pertaining to this? . . . I am a man of action. Simply advice upon advice is being given--this one says this, that one says that; again that man threatens, and this one frightens! This life is not, in my view, such a sweet thing that I would long to live through so much care and caution and fear. Money, life, friends, and relatives, and the love of men and myself--if one wants to enter into work fully assured beforehand of all these--if one has to be so much ridden with fear, then one will get just what Gurudeva used to say, "The crow thinks itself very clever but . . ." --well, he will get that. After all, what is the purpose behind all these--money and wealth, Maths and institutions, preaching and lecturing? There is only one purpose in the whole of life--education. Otherwise what is the use of men and women, land and wealth?_x000d_ So loss of money, or loss of anything else--I cannot bother about, and I will not. When I fight, I fight with girded loins--that much I fully understand; and I also understand that man, that hero, that god, who says, "Don't care, be fearless. O brave one, here I am by your side!" To such a man-god I offer a million salutations. Their presence purifies the world, they are the saviours of the world. And the others who always wail, "Oh, don't go forward, there is this danger, there is that danger"--those dyspeptics--they always tremble with fear. But through the grace of the Divine Mother my mind is so strong that even the most terrible dyspepsia shall not make me a coward. To cowards what advice shall I offer?--nothing whatsoever have I to say. But this I desire, that I should find shelter at the feet of those brave souls who dared to do great deeds even though they failed to succeed, of those heroes who never quailed nor shirked, of those fighters who never disobeyed orders through fear or pride. I am the child of the Divine Mother, the source of all power and strength. To me, cringing, fawning, whining, degrading inertia and hell are one and the same thing. O Mother of the Universe, O my Gurudeva, who would constantly say, "This is a hero!"--I pray that I may not have to die a coward. This is my prayer, O brother. "{Sanskrit}--certainly there is, or there will be born one equal to me"; some one or other will certainly arise from these thousands of devotees of Shri Ramakrishna who will be like me, and who will be able to understand me._x000d_ O hero, awake, and dream no more. Death has caught you by the forelock . . . Still fear not. What I have never done--fleeing from the battle--well, will that happen today? For fear of defeat shall I retreat from the fight? Defeat is the ornament the hero adorns himself with. What, to acknowledge defeat without fighting! O Mother, Mother! . . . Not one capable of even playing second fiddle and yet the mind filled with petty self-importance, "We understand everything". . . . Now I retire; . . . Everything I leave in your control. If Mother sends me men again in whose heart there is courage, in whose hands strength, in whose eyes there is fire, real children of the Mother--if She gives me even one such, then I shall work again, then I shall return. Otherwise, I shall take it that, by Mother's will, this is the end. I am in a tremendous hurry, I want to work at hurricane speed, and I want fearless hearts._x000d_ I have rebuked poor Sarada severely. What to do? . . . I do scold; but I also have much to complain. . . . Almost suffocated by short breathing, standing and standing, I have written an article for him. . . . It is all good, otherwise how will renunciation come? . . . Will Mother in the end kill me with attachment? I have offended all of you--do what you want._x000d_ I bless you all with a full heart. May Mother enshrine Herself in your hearts as strength: {Sanskrit}--the support that is fearlessness--may She make you all fearless. This I have seen in life--he who is over-cautious about himself falls into dangers at every step; he who is afraid of losing honour and respect, gets only disgrace; he who is always afraid of loss always loses. . . . May all good attend you all._x000d_ Yours affectionately,_x000d_ Vivekananda

Murree,_x000d_ 11th October, 1897_x000d_ My dear Jagamohanlal,_x000d_ . . . Leave words when you start for Bombay to somebody to take care of three Sannyasins I am sending to Jaipur. Give them food and good lodging. They will be there till I come. They are fellows--innocent, not learned. They belong to me, and one is my Gurubhai (brother-disciple). If they like, take them to Khetri where I will come soon. I am travelling now quietly. I will not even lecture much this year. I have no more faith in all this noise and humbug which brings no practical good. I must make a silent attempt to start my institution in Calcutta; for that I am going to visit different centres quietly to collect funds._x000d_ Yours with blessings,_x000d_ Vivekananda

Murree_x000d_ 12th October, 1897_x000d_ {original in Bengali}_x000d_ My Dear Rakhal {Brahmananda},_x000d_ I wrote at length in yesterday's letter. I think it desirable to give you special directions about certain matters. . . . (1) To all those who collect money and send it to the Math . . . the acknowledgment of the amounts will be issued from the Math. (2) The acknowledgment must be in duplicate, one for the sender, and one for filing in the Math. (3) There must be a big register in which all the names and addresses of the donors will be entered. (4) Accounts, accurate to the last pie, must be kept of the amounts that are donated to the Math Fund, and fully accurate accounts should be obtained from Sarada and others to whom money is given. For lack of accurate account-keeping . . . See that I am not accused as a cheat. These accounts should afterwards be published. (5) Immediately go and register a will under lawyer's advice to the effect that in case you and I die then Hari and Sharat will succeed to all that there is in our Math._x000d_ I have not yet got any news from Ambala, whether Hariprasanna and others have reached there or not. Give the other half-sheet of this letter to Master Mahashay._x000d_ Yours affectionately,_x000d_ Vivekananda

They followed him to the house of Mr. Hansraj, where he was very pleased to meet and talk with Swami Prakashananda of the Arya Samaj. justice Narayan Das, Mr. Bhaktaram, barrister, and many other educated gentlemen were also present.

For two hours the Swami discoursed lucidly on Hinduism, supporting his arguments with quotations from the Vedas. An English disciple who was present says. "Swamiji, sometimes strolling in the course of his lecture. as was his wont, and sometimes leaning against a pillar decorated with foliage, wreaths, and flowers, and himself wearing a beautiful wreath of flowers on his head and a garland round his neck looked in his flowing saffron-coloured robe and sash, like a Greek god. Moreover, as a background to this, the audience, mostly sitting on the lawn, turbaned and cross-legged, with the sun setting in the distance, made altogether a wondrously picturesque scene."

17th October. In the morning, Swamiji talked on religious subjects with the visitors at Mr. Hansraj's house. Then he went to the Cantonment to keep an invitation to dinner at Nimaibabu's house, where he talked on religious subjects with the Bengali gentlemen assembled there. He returned from there about 3 p.m. After a short rest he went to Mr. Sujan Singh's garden to deliver a lecture on Hinduism.... Returning from there he instructed a gentleman in the secret of performing Sadhanas. At night he went to supper at Mr. Bhaktaram's house in the company of justice Narayan Das, Swami Prakashananda, Mr. Hansraj and others. From there he returned home at 10 p.m., and talked with some of his disciples on matters religious, until three o'clock in the morning.

On October 18 in the course of conversation with leading residents of Rawalpindi, among whom was Swami Prakashananda, he gave a most satisfactory suggestion for resolving the antagonism between the Arya Samaj and the Muslims. He several times visited the Kali temple; received and entertained many visitors from different provinces; and gave several religious talks.