Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda
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)
The year following the Chicago Exposition and Congress of Religions,
the East Indian Monk, Swami Vivekananda, came to New York and gave a course
of lectures. My husband was then passing through a business crisis which
required all of his courage and self-control. We first heard of these
lectures
in a some what curious way. One evening, just after dinner,
the postman
brought a letter; it was from a stranger, addressed to me, and had been
three times forwarded. It told of a lecture to be given by Vivekananda,
giving the time and the place, and closed, saying; `I feel sure, from what
I read of your writings, that you will be interested.' The hall where the
lecture was to be given was just two blocks from our apartment, and the
date was just one hour from the time I received the letter. We had no other
engagement for that evening, and my husband proposed going.
We reached the hall just as Vivekananda was going on the stage in his
robe and turban. We sat in the very last seat of the hall, clasping each
other's hands as the impressive orator gave a never-to-be-forgotten talk
on things spiritual. When we went out my husband said: 'I feel that man
knows more of God than we do. We must both hear him again.'
My husband attended with me not only a number of evening lectures,
but on several occasions came from his business office during the day to
listen to the Swami. I remember him saying, as we went out on the street
one day: 'This man makes me rise above every business worry; he makes
me feel how trivial is the whole material view of life and how limitless
is the life beyond. I can go back to my troubles at the office now with
new strength.'.
InstanceEndEditable
InstanceBeginEditable name="Author Credit Bottom"
- www.vivekananda.net edited by Frank Parlato Jr.
InstanceEndEditable
