II

(Translated from Bengali from private diary)

THE LOSS OF SHRADDHA IN INDIA AND NEED OF ITS REVIVAL — MEN WE WANT — REAL SOCIAL REFORM read more

(Translated from Bengali)

THINK OF DEATH ALWAYS AND NEW LIFE WILL COME WITHIN — WORK FOR OTHERS — GOD THE LAST REFUGE read more

(Translated from Bengali)

INDIA WANTS NOT LECTURING BUT WORK — THE CRYING PROBLEM IN INDIA IS POVERTY — YOUNG SANNYASINS TO BE TRAINED BOTH AS SECULAR AND SPIRITUAL TEACHERS AND WORKERS FOR THE MASSES — EXHORTATIONS TO YOUNG MEN TO WORK FOR OTHERS read more

VI

(Translated from Bengali)

REMINISCENCES — THE PROBLEM OF FAMINES IN INDIA AND SELF-SACRIFICING WORKERS — EAST AND WEST — IS IT SATTVA OR TAMAS — A NATION OF MENDICANTS — THE “GIVE AND TAKE” POLICY — TELL A MAN HIS DEFECTS DIRECTLY BUT PRAISE HIS VIRTUES BEFORE OTHERS — VIVEKANANDA EVERYONE MAY BECOME — UNBROKEN BRAHMACHARYA IS THE SECRET OF POWER — SAMADHI AND WORK read more

Ella Wheeler Wilcox met Swami Vivekananda in NY
1895.

The following is from her book ‘The World and I’.
(George H. Doran Co., NY. 1918) read more

Mary Tappan Wright was the wife of Harvard Professor of Greek, John Henry Wright, who was a friend of Vivekananda. As a faculty spouse, she attended the swami ‘s talk at Radcliffe and recorded the following in her journal: read more

NY 1895

of the Swami’s early classes in NY:
Those first classes!. How intensely interesting they were!  Who that was privileged to attend them can ever forget them! The Swami dignified, yet simple, so gravely earnest, so eloquent, and the close ranks of students, forgetting all inconveniences, hanging breathless on every word! read more

Notes of some wanderings with the Swami Vivekananda

1. Calcutta, February 15, 1899: My lecture on Kali came off on Monday. The Albert Hall was crammed. The Chairman spoke against Kali and me, and was very touching, when unfortunately a devotee got up and amidst tremendous excitement called him all sorts of names. I am sorry to tell you that I laugh whenever I think about it all. Swami was greatly pleased about the lecture, and I trust that there is some reason, for I have several times since been inclined to think that I had done nothing but harm. You see the — declare that that was not Kali worship, and that only what appealed to their lowest feelings was understood by the mob. read more

Sister Devamata (Laura Glenn) in 1895 wrote:

One day, as I was walking up Madison Avenue, I saw in the window of the Hall of the Universal Brotherhood a modest sign saying: “Next Sunday at 3 p.m. Swami Vivekananda will speak here on `What is Vedanta?’ and the following Sunday on `What a Yoga?’ ” I reached the hall twenty minutes
before the hour. It was already over half full. It was not large,
however-a long, narrow room with a single aisle and benches reaching from it to the wall; a low platform holding reading desk and chair at the far end; and a flight of stairs at the back. The hall was on the second story and these stairs gave the only way of access to it-audience and speaker both had to make use of them. By the time three o’clock had arrived, ball, stairs, window-sills and railings, all were crowded to their utmost capacity. Many even were standing below, hoping to catch a faint echo of the words spoken
in the hall above. read more

Recalling the Swami’s lecture on the Bhagavadgita sometime in 1895, she was quoted as saying, later: “I saw with these very eyes (she pointed to her own eyes) Krishna himself standing there and preaching the Gita. That was my first wonderful vision. I stared and stared. . . .I saw only the figure and all else vanished.” read more