The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 6/Epistles - Second Series/XLIV Sisters
XLIV
GREENACRE INN,
ELLIOT, MAINE,
31st July, 1894.
DEAR SISTERS,
I have not written you long, and I have not much to write. This is a big inn
and farm-house where the Christian Scientists are holding a session. Last
spring in New York I was invited by the lady projector of the meeting to
come here, and after all I am here. It is a beautiful and cool place, no
doubt, and many of my old friends of Chicago are here. Mrs. Mills, Miss
Stockham, and several other ladies and gentlemen live in tents which they
have pitched on the open ground by the river. They have a lively time and
sometimes all of them wear what you call your scientific dress the whole
day. They have lectures almost every day. One Mr. Colville from Boston is
here; he speaks every day, it is said, under spirit control. The Editor (?)
of the Universal Truth has settled herself down here. She is conducting
religious services and holding classes to heal all manner of diseases, and
very soon I expect them to be giving eyes to the blind, and the like! After
all, it is a queer gathering. They do not care much about social laws and
are quite free and happy. Mrs. Mills is quite brilliant, and so are many
other ladies. ... Another lady from Detroit — very cultured and with
beautiful black eyes and long hair is going to take me to an island fifteen
miles out at sea. I hope we shall have a nice time. ... I may go over to
Annisquam from here, I suppose. This is a beautiful and nice place and the
bathing is splendid. Cora Stockham has made a bathing dress for me, and I am
having as good a time in the water as a duck this is delicious even for the
denizens of mud Ville. I do not find anything more to write. Only I am so
busy that I cannot find time enough to write to Mother Church separately. My
love and respects to Miss Howe.
There is here Mr. Wood of Boston who is one of the great lights of your
sect. But he objects to belong to the sect of Mrs. Whirlpool. So he calls
himself a mental healer of metaphysico-chemico-physico-religiosio what not!
Yesterday there was a tremendous cyclone which gave a good "treatment" to
the tents. The big tent under which they had the lectures had developed so
much spirituality, under the "treatment", that it entirely disappeared from
mortal gaze, and about two hundred chairs were dancing about the grounds
under spiritual ecstasy! Mrs. Figs of Mills company gives a class every
morning; and Mrs. Mills is jumping all about the place; they are all in high
spirits. I am especially glad for Cora, for they have suffered a good deal
last winter and a little hilarity would do her good. You will be astounded
with the liberty they enjoy in the camps, but they are very good and pure
people there — a little erratic and that is all. I shall be here till
Saturday next. ...
... The other night the camp people went to sleep beneath a pine tree under which I sit every morning a la Hindu and talk to them. Of course I went with them, and we had a nice night under the stars, sleeping on the lap of mother earth, and I enjoyed every bit of it. I cannot describe to you that night's glories — after a year of brutal life that I have led, to sleep on the ground, to meditate under the tree in the forest! The inn people are more or less well-to-do, and the camp people are healthy, young, sincere, and holy men and women. I teach them Shivo'ham, Shivo'ham, and they all repeat it, innocent and pure as they are and brave beyond all bounds. And so I am happy and glorified. Thank God for making me poor, thank God for making these children in the tents poor. The Dudes and Dudines are in the Hotel, but iron-bound nerves and souls of triple steel and spirits of fire are in the camp. If you had seen them yesterday, when the rain was falling in torrents and the cyclone was overturning everything, hanging by their tent strings to keep them from being blown down, and standing on the majesty of their souls — these brave ones — it would have done your hearts good. I will go a hundred miles to see the like of them. Lord bless them! I hope you are enjoying your nice village life. Never be anxious for a moment. I will be taken care of, and if not, I will know my time has come and shall pass out.
"Sweet One! Many people offer to You many things, I am poor — but I have the
body, mind, and soul. I give them over to You. Deign to accept, Lord of the
Universe, and refuse them not." — So have I given over my life and soul once
for all. One thing — they are a dry sort of people here — and as to that
very few in the whole world are there that are not. They do not understand
"Mâdhava", the Sweet One. They are either intellectual or go after faith
cure, table turning, witchcraft, etc., etc. Nowhere have I heard so much
about "love, life, and liberty" as in this country, but nowhere is it less
understood. Here God is either a terror or a healing power, vibration, and
so forth. Lord bless their souls! And these parrots talk day and night of
love and love and love!
Now, good dreams, good thoughts for you. You are good and noble. Instead of
materialising the spirit, that is, dragging the spiritual to the material
plane as these folks do, convert the matter into spirit, catch a glimpse at
least, every day, of that world of infinite beauty and peace and purity —
the spiritual, and try to live in it day and night. Seek not, touch not with
your toes even, anything that is uncanny. Let your souls ascend day and
night like an "unbroken string" unto the feet of the Beloved whose throne is
in your own hearts and let the rest take care of themselves, that is the
body and everything else. Life is evanescent, a fleeting dream; youth and
beauty fade. Say day and night, "Thou art my father, my mother, my husband,
my love, my lord, my God — I want nothing but Thee, nothing but Thee,
nothing but Thee. Thou in me, I in Thee, I am Thee. Thou art me." Wealth
goes, beauty vanishes, life flies, powers fly — but the Lord abideth for
ever, love abideth for ever. If here is glory in keeping the machine in good
trim, it is more glorious to withhold the soul from suffering with the body
— that is the only demonstration of your being "not matter", by letting the
matter alone.
Stick to God! Who cares what comes to the body or to anything else! Through the terrors of evil, say — my God, my love! Through the pangs of death, say — my God, my love! Through all the evils under the sun, say — my God, my love! Thou art here, I see Thee. Thou art with me, I feel Thee. I am Thine, take me. I am not of the world's but Thine, leave not then me. Do not go for glass beads leaving the mine of diamonds! This life is a great chance. What, seekest thou the pleasures of the world? — He is the fountain of all bliss. Seek for the highest, aim at that highest, and you shall reach the highest.
Yours with all blessings,
VIVEKANANDA.