IT was in the fall of 1895 that I first saw him, sitting with his back to the light in Mrs. Leggett's sitting room in Paris. I did not catch his name, but presently found myself next to him, and being asked if I spoke French. He said he didn't either; when I asked him if in his opinion English
Our of the Old World of India forty years ago came a young, courageous, and handsome man in whose face shone the light of triumph over self. He came to the New World of America uninvited, unheralded, unknown ....
Now and then, at long intervals of time, a being finds his way to this planet who is unquestionably a wanderer from another sphere; who brings with him to this sorrowful world some of the glory, the power, the radiance of the far distant region from which he came. He walks among men, but he is
WHEN a man steps from darkness into a very bright light, his eyes are dazed for a while and refuse to work properly for the moment. And when we are asked to speak and describe that great joy which lights our very soul, our answer would be, as it were, but a mere groping in the darkness for wor
EARLY in November 1935, I landed in Calcutta and set foot for the first time on the soil of India. As I left my home in the United States of America journeying westward to encircle the globe, I thought of myself as a tourist in the different countries through which I passed. Only when I reache
IN the year 1893 while I was a student reading in the Presidency College, Madras, I had the good fortune of coming into personal contact with Swami Vivekananda. It was shortly before he left for America to attend the Parliament of Religions at Chicago. He was then unknown to fame but his uniqu
IT was given to me to meet Swami Vivekananda and spend many days with him at Trivandrum towards the close of 1892 before he went to Chicago to represent Hinduism at the Parliament of Religions there in September 1893 and also at Madras after he returned from Chicago and landed at Colombo on 15
I MET Swami Vivekananda for the first time at Trivandrum in December 1892, and was then privileged to see and know a good deal of him. He came to Trivandrum in the course of an extended Indian tour, fulfilling the time-honoured practice obtaining among Indian monks of paying a visit to, and
I HAD the rare privilege of having the late Swami Vivekananda as our guest at Belgaum, I believe some time in 1892. I am not sure of the date, but it was about six months before he reached Madras and there became, better known than he was before. If I remember aright, it was his first visit to
DEAR READER, if you wish to enjoy reading a few pages of my reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda, you must bear with me for a while till I have given you some idea about the sort of man I was before I met the Swami, the conceptions I had of religion, my education, and my nature in general. Unles
ABOUT the year 1892, i.e., before the famous Parliament of Religions in the World's Fair at Chicago, I was once returning from Bombay to Poona. At the Victoria Terminus a Sannyasin entered the carriage I was in. A few Gujarati gentlemen were there to see him off. They made the formal introduct
NEARLY a quarter of a century has elapsed since Swami Vivekananda went to his rest; and every year that passes is bringing fresh recognition of his greatness and widening the circle of appreciation. But the generation that knew him in life and heard his voice is also passing with the years. Su
The accounts were not submitted before, as the work is not yet finished; and I thought of submitting to my donor a complete account when the whole thing was finished. The work was begun only last year, as we had to wait for funds a long time, and my method is never to ask but wait for volunt
Thought is all important for "what we think we become." There was once a Sannyasin, a holy man, who sat under a tree and taught the people. He drank milk, and ate only fruit, and made endless 'Pranayamas,' and felt himself to be very holy. In the same village lived an evil woman. Every
There was a poor man who wanted some money; and somehow he had heard that if he could get hold of a ghost, he might command him to bring money or anything else he liked; so he was very anxious to get hold of a ghost. He went about searching for a man who would give him a ghost, and at last he
A young Sannyasin went to a forest; there he meditated, worshipped, and practised Yoga for a long time. After years of hard work and practice, he was one day sitting under a tree, when some dry leaves fell upon his head. He looked up and saw a crow and a crane fighting on the top of the tree
I have recently discovered an unrecorded letter by Swami Vivekananda from his second visit to England which was sent to the Rev. Hugh R. Haweis, who was a delegate of the Anglican Church at the World Parliament of Religions and where he first met Vivekananda. The Rev was a very popular and well know
The Swami's views of Hindu Avatars, Sages, Gods and Goddesses
One day it was Sivaji and the Marathas and the year's wandering as a Sanyasin , that won him home to Raigarh. "And to this day" said the Swami,(June,1898) "authority in India dreads the Sannyasin, lest he conceal beneath his yellow garb another Sivaji."
Swami Vivekananda on Shah Jahan, (who had the Taj Mahal built) " Ah! he was the glory of his line ! A feeling for, and discrimination of beauty that are unparalled in history. And an artist himself! I have seen a manuscript illuminated by him, which is one of the art-treasures of India
(Swami Vivekananda) "pointed out three things as the dominant notes of (Ram Mohun Roy) message: his acceptance of the Vedanta, his preaching of patriotism, and the love that embraced the Mussulman equally with the Hindu.
( Notes of some wanderings with the Swami Vivekananda by Sister Nivedita)
Sister Nivedita wrote "(Along) with (Vidyasagar) as one of the educators of Bengal, the Swami coupled the name of David Hare, the old Scotsman and atheist to whom the clergy of Calcutta refused Christian burial. He had died of nursing an old pupil through cholera. So his own boys carrie
That was a great hour indeed, when he spoke of Buddha; for, catching a word that seemed to identify him with its anti-Brahminical spirit, an uncomprehending listener said, "Why Swami, I did not know that you were a Buddhist!"
"After all she was no ordinary wife. Could the wife of someone who was the master of thousands of [spiritual] orphans, the deliverer of unlimited number of reprobates, the jewel of the heart of the Lord of the Universe, deign to acquire the habits of beasts given to sexual appetites? The scr
Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi was seated with a number of women devotees. I was acquainted with some of them. The mother was very cheerful in their company. She welcomed me with a smile. I requested Gauri-Ma to bring from the library two books, the life of Sister Nivedita and the Indian lectures
Sudhir Chandra Samui, Ex-Headmaster of Deopara Champamoni High School, was a resident of Jayrambati and passed away in 1994 at the age of 87. This article was translated from the original Bengali by Ms. Maloti Sengupta of Kolkata from Sri Sri Mayer Pada-prante published by Udbodhan Karyalaya,
Swami Nirvanananda (often referred to as "Surya Swami Brahmananda" or "Sujji Swami Brahmananda") was a disciple of Swami Brahmananda. Nirvanananda was Vice-President of the Ramakrishna Order.
"‘Be a devotee, but don’t be a fool!’ You must be alert in everything. Sri Ramakrishna used to say: ‘Look at me! The Divine Mother has placed me in such a state that I can hardly keep clothes on my body, and yet I am not forgetful.’ The Master told us: ‘He who is careless is foolish.’ In our scr
When I first began to visit Sri Ramakrishna, I often felt like crying. One night at Dakshineswar, by the bank of the Ganges, I wept to my heart’s content. In the meantime the Master had been asking for me. When I returned to his room, he said: ‘You know, if you weep before the Lord, your tears
