“Personally, I yearn to be able to look with Miss Muller’s eyes and think that he could fail, and then be faithful. If he were a common man, or nearer it, unloved, obscure or hated, one’s love might be worth something; as it is it is a little thing to worship him for whom the very stars must fight. For that room and chair where he is throned seems to me the very centre of the universe – and so you see Yum dear, it is as if we loved one who was rich. Imagine GOD against him – and conceive the joy of standing by him then!”
Sister Nivedita on Swami Vivekananda (in a letter to Josephine MacLeod Aug. 17 1899)

Closeup of Swami Vivekananda from the group picture of he, Mrs. Bull, Miss MacLeod and Sister Nivedita.

Vivekananda on a houseboat in Kashmir, 1898. His life with the three western women – Mrs. Bull, Miss MacCleod and Sister Nivedita, at this time, living on houseboats, is described in Sister Nivedita’s “Notes of Some Wanderings with the Swami Vivekananda.” Under the boat canopy (l-r): Josephine MacCleod, Swami Vivekananda, Mrs. Ole Bull and Sister Nivedita An extract from Notes of Some Wanderings by Sister Nivedita: “Amongst his own, the ignorant loved him as much as scholars and statesmen. The boatmen watched the river, in his absence, for his return, and servants disputed with guests to do him service. And through it all, the veil of playfulness was never dropped.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Possibly taken in Kashmir, 1898.

Possibly taken in Kashmir, 1898.