Epistles (second series)

Adhyapakji (Prof. John Henry Wright)

VIII
Salem (USA)
30th Aug., 1893
Dear Adhyapakji (Honourable Professor) {Prof. John Henry Wright},
I am going off from here today. I hope you have received some reply from Chicago. I have received an invitation with full directions from Mr. Sanborn. So I am going to Saratoga on Monday. My respects to your wife. And my love to Austin and all the children. You are a real Mahatma (a great soul) and Mrs. Wright is nonpareil.
Yours affectionately,
Vivekananda

IX
Salem
Saturday, 4th Sept., 1893
Dear Adhyapakji {Prof. John Henry Wright},
I hasten to tender my heartfelt gratitude to you for your letters of introduction. I have received a letter from Mr. Theles of Chicago giving me the names of some of the delegates and other things about the Congress.
Your professor of Sanskrit in his note to Miss Sanborn mistakes me for Purushottama Joshi and states that there is a Sanskrit library in Boston the like of which can scarcely be met with in India. I would be so happy to see it.
Mr. Sanborn has written to me to come over to Saratoga on Monday and I am going accordingly. I would stop then at a boarding house called Sanatorium. If any news come from Chicago in the meanwhile I hope you will kindly send it over to the Sanatorium, Saratoga.
You and your noble wife and sweet children have made an impression in my brain which is simply indelible, and I thought myself so much nearer to heaven when living with you. May He, the giver of all gifts, shower on your head His choicest blessings.
Here are a few lines written as an attempt at poetry. Hoping your love will pardon this infliction.
Ever your friend,
Vivekananda

X
Chicago
2nd October, 1893

Dear Adhyapakji {Prof. John Henry Wright},
I do not know what you are thinking of my long silence. In the first place I dropped in on the Congress in the eleventh hour, and quite unprepared; and that kept me very very busy for some time. Secondly, I was speaking almost every day in the Congress and had no time to write; and last and greatest of all my kind friend, I owe so much to you that it would have been an insult to your ahetuka (unselfish) friendship to have written you business?like letters in a hurry. The Congress is now over.
Dear brother, I was so so afraid to stand before that great assembly of fine speakers and thinkers from all over the world and speak; but the Lord gave me strength, and I almost every day heroically (?) faced the platform and the audience. If I have done well, He gave me the strength for it; if I have miserably failed I knew that beforehand for I am hopelessly ignorant.
Your friend Prof. Bradley was very kind to me and he always cheered me on. And oh! everybody is so kind here to me who am nothing that it is beyond my power of expression. Glory unto Him in the highest in whose sight the poor ignorant monk from India is the same as the learned divines of this mighty land. And how the Lord is helping me every day of my life, brother I sometimes wish for a life of [a] million million ages to serve Him through the work, dressed in rags and fed by charity.
Oh, how I wished that you were here to see some of our sweet ones from India the tender?hearted Buddhist Dharmapala, the orator Mazoomdar and realise that in that far?off and poor India there are hearts that beat in sympathy to yours, born and brought up in this mighty and great country.
My eternal respects to your holy wife; and to your sweet children my eternal love and blessings.
Col. Higginson, a very broad man, told me that your daughter had written to his daughter about me; and he was very sympathetic to me. I am going to Evanston tomorrow and hope to see Prof. Bradley there.
May He make us all more and more pure and holy so that we may live a perfect spiritual life even before throwing off this earthly body.

Vivekananda.

[The letter continues on a separate sheet of paper:]

I am now going to be reconciled to my life here. All my life I have been taking every circumstance as coming from Him and calmly adapting myself to it. At first in America I was almost out of my water. I was afraid I would have to give up the accustomed way of being guided by the Lord and cater for myself and what a horrid piece of mischief and ingratitude was that. I now clearly see that He who was guiding me on the snow tops of the Himalayas and the burning plains of India is here to help me and guide me. Glory unto Him in the highest. So I have calmly fallen into my old ways. Somebody or other gives me a shelter and food, somebody or other comes to ask me to speak about Him, and I know He sends them and mine is to obey. And then He is supplying my necessities, and His will be done !
"He who rests [in] Me and gives up all other self?assertion and struggles I carry to him whatever he needs" (Gita).
So it is in Asia. So in Europe. So in America. So in the deserts of India. So in the rush of business in America. For is He not here also? And if He does not, I only would take for granted that He wants that I should lay aside this three minutes' body of clay and hope to lay it down gladly.
We may or may not meet, brother. He knows. You are great, learned, and holy. I dare not preach to you or your wife; but to your children I quote these passages from the Vedas
"The four Vedas, sciences, languages, philosophy, and all other learnings are only ornamental. The real learning, the true knowledge is that which enables us to reach Him who is unchangeable in His love."
"How real, how tangible, how visible is He through whom the skin touches, the eyes see, and the world gets its reality!"
"Hearing Him nothing remains to be heard,
Seeing Him nothing remains to be seen,
Attaining Him nothing remains to be attained."
"He is the eye of our eyes, the ear of our ears, the Soul of our souls."
He is nearer to you, my dears, than even your father and mother. You are innocent and pure as flowers. Remain so, and He will reveal Himself unto you. Dear Austin, when you are playing, there is another playmate playing with you who loves you more than anybody else; and Oh, He is so full of fun. He is always playing sometimes with great big balls which we call the sun and earth, sometimes with little children like you and laughing and playing with you. How funny it would be to see Him and play with Him! My dear, think of it.
Dear Adhyapakji, I am moving about just now. Only when I come to Chicago, I always go to see Mr. and Mrs. Lyons, one of the noblest couples I have seen here. If you would be kind enough to write to me, kindly address it to the care of Mr. John B. Lyon, 262 Michigan Ave., Chicago.
"He who gets hold of the One in this world of many the one constant existence in a world of flitting shadows the one life in a world of death he alone crosses this sea of misery and struggle. None else, none else" (Vedas).
"He who is the Brahman of the Vedantins, Ishvara of the Naiyayikas, Purusha of the Sankhyas, cause of the Mimamsakas, law of the Buddhists, absolute zero of the Atheists, and love infinite unto those that love, may [He] take us all under His merciful protection": Udayanacharya a great philosopher of the Nyaya or Dualistic school. And this is the Benediction pronounced at the very beginning of his wonderful book Kusumanjali (A handful of flowers), in which he attempts to establish the existence of a personal creator and moral ruler of infinite love independently of revelation.
Your ever grateful friend,
Vivekananda.

XII

c/o J. Lyon,
262 Michigan Avenue, Chicago
26th October, 1893

Dear Adhyapakji {Prof. John Henry Wright},
You would be glad to know that I am doing well here and that almost everybody has been very kind to me, except of course the very orthodox. Many of the men brought together here from far?off lands have got projects and ideas and missions to carry out, and America is the only place where there is a chance of success for everything. But I thought better and have given up speaking about my project entirely because I am sure now the heathen draws more than his project. So I want to go to work earnestly for my own project only keeping the project in the background and working like any other lecturer.
He who has brought me hither and has not left me yet will not leave me ever I am here. You will be glad to know that I am doing well and expect to do very well in the way of getting money. Of course I am too green in the business but would soon learn my trade. I am very popular in Chicago. So I want to stay here a little more and get money.

Tomorrow I am going to lecture on Buddhism at the ladies' fortnightly club which is the most influential in this city. How to thank you my kind friend or Him who brought you to me; for now I think the success of my project probable, and it is you who have made it so.
May blessings and happiness attend every step of your progress in this world.My love and blessings to your children.

Yours affectionately ever,
Vivekananda.

XVI

New York,
25th April, 1894

Dear Professor {Prof. John Henry Wright},
I am very very grateful for your invitation. And will come on May 7th. As for the bed my friend, your love and noble heart can convert the stone into down.
I am sorry I am not going to the authors' breakfast at Salem.
I am coming home by May 7th.

Yours truly,
Vivekananda.

XIX
New York,
4th May, 1894

Dear Adhyapakji {Prof. John Henry Wright},
I have received your kind note just now. And it is unnecessary for me to say that I will be very happy to do as you say.
I have also received Col. Higginson's letter. I will reply to him.
I will be in Boston on Sunday [May 6]. On Monday I lecture at the Women's Club of Mrs. Howe.
Yours ever truly,
Vivekananda.

17 Beacon Street, Boston,
May, 1894

Dear Adhyapakji {Prof. John Henry Wright},

By this time you have got the pamphlet and the letters. If you like, I would send you over from Chicago some letters from Indian Princes and ministers one of these ministers was one of the Commissioners of the late opium commission that sat under Royal Commission in India. If you like, I will have them write to you to convince you of my not being a cheat. But, my brother, our ideal of life is to hide, to suppress, and to deny.

We are to give up and not to take. Had I not the "Fad" in my head, I would never have come over here. And it was with a hope that it would help my cause that I joined the Parliament of Religions having always refused it when our people wanted to send me for it. I came over telling them "that I may or may not join that assembly and you may send me over if you like". They sent me over leaving me quite free.

You did the rest.

I am morally bound to afford you every satisfaction, my kind friend; but for the rest of the world I do not care what they say the Sannyasin must not have self?defence. So I beg of you not to publish or show anybody anything in that pamphlet or the letters. I do not care for the attempts of the old missionary; but the fever of jealousy which attacked Mazoomdar gave me a terrible shock, and I pray that he would know better for he is a great and good man who has tried all his life to do good. But this proves one of my Master's sayings, "Living in a room covered with black soot-however careful you may be some spots must stick to your clothes." So, however one may try to be good and holy, so long he is in the world, some part of his nature must gravitate downwards.

The way to God is the opposite to that of the world. And to few, very few, are given to have God and mammon at the same time.

I was never a missionary, nor ever would be one my place is in the Himalayas. I have satisfied myself so far that I can with a full conscience say, "My God, I saw terrible misery amongst my brethren; I searched and discovered the way out of it, tried my best to apply the remedy, but failed. So Thy will be done."
May his blessings be on you and yours for ever and ever.
Yours affectionately,
Vivekananda.
541 Dearborn Ave., Chicago
I go to Chicago tomorrow or day after.
Yours
V.

XXI
541 Dearborn Avenue,
Chicago
24th May, 1894
Dear Adhyapakji {Prof. John Henry Wright},
Herewith I forward to you a letter from one of our ruling princes of Rajputana, His Highness the Maharaja of Khetri, and another from the opium commissioner, late minister of Junagad, one of the largest states in India, and a man who is called the Gladstone of India. These I hope would convince you of my being no fraud.
One thing I forgot to tell you. I never identified myself anyway with Mr. Mazoomdar's party chief. 83 If he says so, he does not speak the truth.
I hope, after your perusal, you will kindly send the letters over to me, except the pamphlet which I do not care for.
I am bound, my dear friend, to give you every satisfaction of my being a genuine Sannyasin, but to you alone. I do not care what the rabbles say or think about me.
"Some would call you a saint, some a chandala ; some a lunatic, others a demon. Go on then straight to thy work without heeding either" thus saith one of our great Sannyasins, an old emperor of India, King Bhartrihari, who joined the order in old times.
May the Lord bless you for ever and ever. My love to all your children and my respects to your noble wife.

I remain ever your friend,
Vivekananda.

PS I had connection with Pundit Shiva Nath Shastri's party but only on points of social reform. Mazoomdar and Chandra Sen I always considered as not sincere, and I have no reason to change my opinion even now. Of course in religious matters even with my friend Punditji I differed much, the chief being, I thinking Sannyasa or (giving up the world) the highest ideal, and he, a sin. So the Brahmo Samaj ists consider becoming a monk a sin!!

Yours,
V.

The Brahmo Samaj, like Christian Science in your country, spread in Calcutta for a certain time and then died out. I am not sorry, neither glad that it died. It has done its work viz social reform. Its religion was not worth a cent, and so it must die out. If Mazoomdar thinks I was one of the causes of its death, he errs. I am even now a great sympathiser of its reforms; but the "booby" religion could not hold its own against the old "Vedanta". What shall I do? Is that my fault? Mazoomdar has become childish in his old age and takes to tactics not a whit better than some of your Christian missionaries. Lord bless him and show him better ways.

Yours,
Vivekananda.

When are you going to Annisquam? My love to Austin and Bime. My respects to your wife; and for you my love and gratitude is too deep for expression.

Yours ever affectionately,

Vivekananda.

XXII

541 Dearborn Avenue,
18th June, 1894

Dear Adhyapakji {Prof. John Henry Wright},
Excuse my delay in sending the other letters; I could not find them earlier. I am going to New York in a week.
I do not know whether I will come to Annisquam or not. The letters need not be sent over to me until I write you again. Mrs. Bagley seems to be unsettled by that article in the Boston paper against me. 84 She sent me over a copy from Detroit and has ceased correspondence with me. Lord bless her. She has been very kind to me.
Stout hearts like yours are not common, my brother. This is a queer place this world of ours. On the whole I am very very thankful to the Lord for the amount of kindness I have received at the hands of the people of this country I, a complete stranger here without even "credentials". Everything works for the best.

Yours ever in gratitude,
Vivekananda.

PS. The East India stamps are for your children if they like.

XXXV

63 St. George's Road
London, S.W.

16th May, 1896.

Dear Adhyapakji {Prof. John Henry Wright}, 93
Last mail brought the very very sad news of the blow that has fallen on you.
This is the world my brother this illusion of Maya the Lord alone is true. The forms are evanescent; but the spirit, being in the Lord and of the Lord, is immortal and omnipresent. All that we ever had are round us this minute, for the spirit can neither come nor go, it only changes its plane of manifestation.
You are strong and pure and so is Mrs. Wright, and I am sure that the Divine in you has arisen and thrown away the lie and delusion that there can be death for anyone.
"He who sees in this world of manifoldness that one support of everything, in the midst of a world of unconsciousness that one eternal consciousness, in this evanescent world that one eternal and unchangeable, unto him belongs eternal peace."
May the peace of the Lord descend upon you and yours in abundance is the prayer of

Your ever loving friend,
Vivekananda.

Epistles (third series)

VIII

Salem (USA)
30th Aug., 1893

Dear Adhyapakji (Honourable Professor) {Prof. John Henry Wright},
I am going off from here today. I hope you have received some reply from Chicago. I have received an invitation with full directions from Mr. Sanborn. So I am going to Saratoga on Monday. My respects to your wife. And my love to Austin and all the children. You are a real Mahatma (a great soul) and Mrs. Wright is nonpareil.
Yours affectionately,
Vivekananda

Salem
Saturday, 4th Sept., 1893

Dear Adhyapakji {Prof. John Henry Wright},
I hasten to tender my heartfelt gratitude to you for your letters of introduction. I have received a letter from Mr. Theles of Chicago giving me the names of some of the delegates and other things about the Congress. Your professor of Sanskrit in his note to Miss Sanborn mistakes me for Purushottama Joshi and states that there is a Sanskrit library in Boston the like of which can scarcely be met with in India. I would be so happy to see it.
Mr. Sanborn has written to me to come over to Saratoga on Monday and I am going accordingly. I would stop then at a boarding house called Sanatorium. If any news come from Chicago in the meanwhile I hope you will kindly send it over to the Sanatorium, Saratoga.
You and your noble wife and sweet children have made an impression in my brain which is simply indelible, and I thought myself so much nearer to heaven when living with you. May He, the giver of all gifts, shower on your head His choicest blessings.
Here are a few lines written as an attempt at poetry. Hoping your love will pardon this infliction.
Ever your friend,
Vivekananda
O'er hill and dale and mountain range,
In temple, church, and mosque,
In Vedas, Bible, Al Koran
I had searched for Thee in vain.
Like a child in the wildest forest lost
I have cried and cried alone,
"Where art Thou gone, my God, my love?"
The echo answered, "gone."
And days and nights and years then passed--
A fire was in the brain;
I knew not when day changed in night,
The heart seemed rent in twain.
I laid me down on Ganga's shore,
Exposed to sun and rain;
With burning tears I laid the dust
And wailed with waters' roar.
I called on all the holy names
Of every clime and creed,
"Show me the way, in mercy, ye
Great ones who have reached the goal".
Years then passed in bitter cry,
Each moment seemed an age,
Till one day midst my cries and groans
Some one seemed calling me.
A gentle soft and soothing voice
That said "my son", "my son",
That seemed to thrill in unison
With all the chords of my soul.
I stood on my feet and tried to find
The place the voice came from;
I searched and searched and turned to see
Round me, before, behind.
Again, again it seemed to speak--
The voice divine to me.
In rapture all my soul was hushed,
Entranced, enthralled in bliss.
A flash illumined all my soul;
The heart of my heart opened wide.
O joy, O bliss, what do I find!
My love, my love, you are here,
And you are here, my love, my all!
And I was searching thee!
From all eternity you were there
Enthroned in majesty!
From that day forth, where'er I roam,
I feel Him standing by
O'er hill and dale, high mount and vale,
Far far away and high.
The moon's soft light, the stars so bright,
The glorious orb of day,
He shines in them; His beauty--might--
Reflected lights are they.
The majestic morn, the melting eve,
The boundless billowy sea,
In nature's beauty, songs of birds,
I see through them--it is He.
When dire calamity seizes me,
The heart seems weak and faint,
All nature seems to crush me down,
With laws that never bend.
Meseems I hear Thee whispering sweet
My love, "I am near", "I am near".
My heart gets strong. With Thee, my love,
A thousand deaths no fear.
Thou speakest in the mother's lay
That shuts the baby's eye;
When innocent children laugh and play
I see Thee standing by.
When holy friendship shakes the hand,
He stands between them too;
He pours the nectar in mother's kiss
And the baby's sweet "mama".
Thou wert my God with prophets old;
All creeds do come from Thee;
The Vedas, Bible, and Koran bold
Sing Thee in harmony.
"Thou art", "Thou art" the Soul of souls
In the rushing stream of life.
"Om tat Sat om." 79 Thou art my God.
My love, I am thine, I am thine.

Chicago
2nd October, 1893

Dear Adhyapakji {Prof. John Henry Wright},
I do not know what you are thinking of my long silence. In the first place I dropped in on the Congress in the eleventh hour, and quite unprepared; and that kept me very very busy for some time. Secondly, I was speaking almost every day in the Congress and had no time to write; and last and greatest of all--my kind friend, I owe so much to you that it would have been an insult to your ahetuka (unselfish) friendship to have written you business-like letters in a hurry. The Congress is now over.
Dear brother, I was so so afraid to stand before that great assembly of fine speakers and thinkers from all over the world and speak; but the Lord gave me strength, and I almost every day heroically (?) faced the platform and the audience. If I have done well, He gave me the strength for it; if I have miserably failed--I knew that beforehand--for I am hopelessly ignorant.
Your friend Prof. Bradley was very kind to me and he always cheered me on. And oh! everybody is so kind here to me who am nothing--that it is beyond my power of expression. Glory unto Him in the highest in whose sight the poor ignorant monk from India is the same as the learned divines of this mighty land. And how the Lord is helping me every day of my life, brother--I sometimes wish for a life of [a] million million ages to serve Him through the work, dressed in rags and fed by charity.
Oh, how I wished that you were here to see some of our sweet ones from India--the tender-hearted Buddhist Dharmapala, the orator Mazoomdar--and realise that in that far-off and poor India there are hearts that beat in sympathy to yours, born and brought up in this mighty and great country.
My eternal respects to your holy wife; and to your sweet children my eternal love and blessings.
Col. Higginson, a very broad man, told me that your daughter had written to his daughter about me; and he was very sympathetic to me. I am going to Evanston tomorrow and hope to see Prof. Bradley there.
May He make us all more and more pure and holy so that we may live a perfect spiritual life even before throwing off this earthly body.

Vivekananda.

[The letter continues on a separate sheet of paper:]
I am now going to be reconciled to my life here. All my life I have been taking every circumstance as coming from Him and calmly adapting myself to it. At first in America I was almost out of my water. I was afraid I would have to give up the accustomed way of being guided by the Lord and cater for myself--and what a horrid piece of mischief and ingratitude was that. I now clearly see that He who was guiding me on the snow tops of the Himalayas and the burning plains of India is here to help me and guide me. Glory unto Him in the highest. So I have calmly fallen into my old ways. Somebody or other gives me a shelter and food, somebody or other comes to ask me to speak about Him, and I know He sends them and mine is to obey. And then He is supplying my necessities, and His will be done !
"He who rests [in] Me and gives up all other self-assertion and struggles I carry to him whatever he needs" (Gita).
So it is in Asia. So in Europe. So in America. So in the deserts of India. So in the rush of business in America. For is He not here also? And if He does not, I only would take for granted that He wants that I should lay aside this three minutes' body of clay--and hope to lay it down gladly.
We may or may not meet, brother. He knows. You are great, learned, and holy. I dare not preach to you or your wife; but to your children I quote these passages from the Vedas--
"The four Vedas, sciences, languages, philosophy, and all other learnings are only ornamental. The real learning, the true knowledge is that which enables us to reach Him who is unchangeable in His love."
"How real, how tangible, how visible is He through whom the skin touches, the eyes see, and the world gets its reality!"
"Hearing Him nothing remains to be heard,
Seeing Him nothing remains to be seen,
Attaining Him nothing remains to be attained."
"He is the eye of our eyes, the ear of our ears, the Soul of our souls."
He is nearer to you, my dears, than even your father and mother. You are innocent and pure as flowers. Remain so, and He will reveal Himself unto you. Dear Austin, when you are playing, there is another playmate playing with you who loves you more than anybody else; and Oh, He is so full of fun. He is always playing--sometimes with great big balls which we call the sun and earth, sometimes with little children like you and laughing and playing with you. How funny it would be to see Him and play with Him! My dear, think of it.
Dear Adhyapakji, I am moving about just now. Only when I come to Chicago, I always go to see Mr. and Mrs. Lyons, one of the noblest couples I have seen here. If you would be kind enough to write to me, kindly address it to the care of Mr. John B. Lyon, 262 Michigan Ave., Chicago.
"He who gets hold of the One in this world of many--the one constant existence in a world of flitting shadows--the one life in a world of death--he alone crosses this sea of misery and struggle. None else, none else" (Vedas).
"He who is the Brahman of the Vedantins, Ishvara of the Naiyayikas, Purusha of the Sankhyas, cause of the Mimamsakas, law of the Buddhists, absolute zero of the Atheists, and love infinite unto those that love, may [He] take us all under His merciful protection": Udayanacharya--a great philosopher of the Nyaya or Dualistic school. And this is the Benediction pronounced at the very beginning of his wonderful book Kusumanjali (A handful of flowers), in which he attempts to establish the existence of a personal creator and moral ruler of infinite love independently of revelation.
Your ever grateful friend,
Vivekananda.

XII

c/o J. Lyon,
262 Michigan Avenue, Chicago
26th October, 1893

Dear Adhyapakji {Prof. John Henry Wright},
You would be glad to know that I am doing well here and that almost everybody has been very kind to me, except of course the very orthodox. Many of the men brought together here from far-off lands have got projects and ideas and missions to carry out, and America is the only place where there is a chance of success for everything. But I thought better and have given up speaking about my project entirely--because I am sure now--the heathen draws more than his project. So I want to go to work earnestly for my own project only keeping the project in the background and working like any other lecturer.
He who has brought me hither and has not left me yet will not leave me ever I am here. You will be glad to know that I am doing well and expect to do very well in the way of getting money. Of course I am too green in the business but would soon learn my trade. I am very popular in Chicago. So I want to stay here a little more and get money.
Tomorrow I am going to lecture on Buddhism at the ladies' fortnightly club--which is the most influential in this city. How to thank you my kind friend or Him who brought you to me; for now I think the success of my project probable, and it is you who have made it so.
May blessings and happiness attend every step of your progress in this world.My love and blessings to your children.

Yours affectionately ever,
Vivekananda.

XVI

New York,
25th April, 1894

Dear Professor {Prof. John Henry Wright},
I am very very grateful for your invitation. And will come on May 7th. As for the bed--my friend, your love and noble heart can convert the stone into down.
I am sorry I am not going to the authors' breakfast at Salem.
I am coming home by May 7th.

Yours truly,
Vivekananda.

XIX

New York,
4th May, 1894

17 Beacon Street, Boston,
May, 1894

Dear Adhyapakji {Prof. John Henry Wright},
By this time you have got the pamphlet and the letters. If you like, I would send you over from Chicago some letters from Indian Princes and ministers--one of these ministers was one of the Commissioners of the late opium commission that sat under Royal Commission in India. If you like, I will have them write to you to convince you of my not being a cheat. But, my brother, our ideal of life is to hide, to suppress, and to deny.

We are to give up and not to take. Had I not the "Fad" in my head, I would never have come over here. And it was with a hope that it would help my cause that I joined the Parliament of Religions--having always refused it when our people wanted to send me for it. I came over telling them--"that I may or may not join that assembly--and you may send me over if you like". They sent me over leaving me quite free.

You did the rest.

I am morally bound to afford you every satisfaction, my kind friend; but for the rest of the world I do not care what they say--the Sannyasin must not have self-defence. So I beg of you not to publish or show anybody anything in that pamphlet or the letters. I do not care for the attempts of the old missionary; but the fever of jealousy which attacked Mazoomdar gave me a terrible shock, and I pray that he would know better--for he is a great and good man who has tried all his life to do good. But this proves one of my Master's sayings, "Living in a room covered with black soot--however careful you may be--some spots must stick to your clothes." So, however one may try to be good and holy, so long he is in the world, some part of his nature must gravitate downwards.

The way to God is the opposite to that of the world. And to few, very few, are given to have God and mammon at the same time.
I was never a missionary, nor ever would be one--my place is in the Himalayas. I have satisfied myself so far that I can with a full conscience say, "My God, I saw terrible misery amongst my brethren; I searched and discovered the way out of it, tried my best to apply the remedy, but failed. So Thy will be done."
May his blessings be on you and yours for ever and ever.
Yours affectionately,
Vivekananda.
541 Dearborn Ave., Chicago
I go to Chicago tomorrow or day after.
Yours
V.

XXI
541 Dearborn Avenue,
Chicago
24th May, 1894
Dear Adhyapakji {Prof. John Henry Wright},
Herewith I forward to you a letter from one of our ruling princes of Rajputana, His Highness the Maharaja of Khetri, and another from the opium commissioner, late minister of Junagad, one of the largest states in India, and a man who is called the Gladstone of India. These I hope would convince you of my being no fraud. One thing I forgot to tell you. I never identified myself anyway with Mr. Mazoomdar's party chief. 83 If he says so, he does not speak the truth.
I hope, after your perusal, you will kindly send the letters over to me, except the pamphlet which I do not care for.
I am bound, my dear friend, to give you every satisfaction of my being a genuine Sannyasin, but to you alone. I do not care what the rabbles say or think about me.
"Some would call you a saint, some a chandala ; some a lunatic, others a demon. Go on then straight to thy work without heeding either"--thus saith one of our great Sannyasins, an old emperor of India, King Bhartrihari, who joined the order in old times.
May the Lord bless you for ever and ever. My love to all your children and my respects to your noble wife.

I remain ever your friend,
Vivekananda.

PS--I had connection with Pundit Shiva Nath Shastri's party--but only on points of social reform. Mazoomdar and Chandra Sen--I always considered as not sincere, and I have no reason to change my opinion even now. Of course in religious matters even with my friend Punditji I differed much, the chief being, I thinking Sannyasa or (giving up the world) the highest ideal, and he, a sin. So the Brahmo Samaj ists consider becoming a monk a sin!!

Yours,
V.

The Brahmo Samaj, like Christian Science in your country, spread in Calcutta for a certain time and then died out. I am not sorry, neither glad that it died. It has done its work--viz social reform. Its religion was not worth a cent, and so it must die out. If Mazoomdar thinks I was one of the causes of its death, he errs. I am even now a great sympathiser of its reforms; but the "booby" religion could not hold its own against the old "Vedanta". What shall I do? Is that my fault? Mazoomdar has become childish in his old age and takes to tactics not a whit better than some of your Christian missionaries. Lord bless him and show him better ways.

Yours,
Vivekananda.

When are you going to Annisquam? My love to Austin and Bime. My respects to your wife; and for you my love and gratitude is too deep for expression.

Yours ever affectionately,
Vivekananda.

XXII

541 Dearborn Avenue,
18th June, 1894

Dear Adhyapakji {Prof. John Henry Wright},
Excuse my delay in sending the other letters; I could not find them earlier. I am going to New York in a week.
I do not know whether I will come to Annisquam or not. The letters need not be sent over to me until I write you again. Mrs. Bagley seems to be unsettled by that article in the Boston paper against me. 84 She sent me over a copy from Detroit and has ceased correspondence with me. Lord bless her. She has been very kind to me.
Stout hearts like yours are not common, my brother. This is a queer place--this world of ours. On the whole I am very very thankful to the Lord for the amount of kindness I have received at the hands of the people of this country--I, a complete stranger here without even "credentials". Everything works for the best.

Yours ever in gratitude,
Vivekananda.

PS. The East India stamps are for your children if they like.

XXXV

63 St. George's Road
London, S.W.
16th May, 1896.

Dear Adhyapakji {Prof. John Henry Wright}, 93
Last mail brought the very very sad news of the blow that has fallen on you.
This is the world my brother--this illusion of Maya--the Lord alone is true. The forms are evanescent; but the spirit, being in the Lord and of the Lord, is immortal and omnipresent. All that we ever had are round us this minute, for the spirit can neither come nor go, it only changes its plane of manifestation.
You are strong and pure and so is Mrs. Wright, and I am sure that the Divine in you has arisen and thrown away the lie and delusion that there can be death for anyone.
"He who sees in this world of manifoldness that one support of everything, in the midst of a world of unconsciousness that one eternal consciousness, in this evanescent world that one eternal and unchangeable, unto him belongs eternal peace."
May the peace of the Lord descend upon you and yours in abundance is the prayer of

Your ever loving friend,
Vivekananda.

Epistles (fifth series)

XLVIII

To Professor John H. Wright

54 W. 33 Street
New York
1 February 1895
Dear Adhyapakji,
You must be immersed in your work now; however, taking advantage of your kindness to me, I want to bother you a little.
What was the original Greek idea of the soul, both philosophical and popular? What books can I consult (Translations, of course) to get it?
So with the Egyptians and Babylonians and Jews?
Will you kindly name me the books? I am sure you are perfectly well and so are Mrs. Wright and the children.
Ever gratefully and fraternally,
Yours,
Vivekananda

Back to Complete Known Letters

Swami Vivekananda

Epistles (second series)