The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 7/Epistles - Third Series/XXV Brother Shivananda
XXV
(Translated from Bengali)
U. S.A.,
1894.
DEAR BROTHER SHIVANANDA,
Your letter just reached me. Perhaps by this time you have received my other
letters and learnt that it is not necessary to send anything to America any
more. Too much of everything is bad. This newspaper booming has given me
popularity no doubt, but its effect is more in India than here. Here, on the
other hand, constant booming creates a distaste in the minds of the higher
class people; so enough. Now try to organise yourselves in India on the
lines of these meetings. You need not send anything more in this country. As
to money, I have determined first to build some place for Mother, (Holy
Mother, Shri Sarada Devi.) for women require it first. . . . I can send
nearly Rs. 7,000 for a place for Mother. If the place is first secured, then
I do not care for anything else. I hope to be able to get Rs. 1,600 a year
from this country even when I am gone. That sum I will make over to the
support of the Women's place, and then it will grow. I have written to you
already to secure a place. . . .
I would have, before this, returned to India, but India has no money. Thousands honour Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, but nobody will give a cent — that is India. . . . In the meanwhile live in harmony at any price. The world cares little for principles. They care for persons. They will hear with patience the words of a man they like, however nonsense, and will not listen to anyone they do not like. Think of this and modify your conduct accordingly. Everything will come all right. Be the servant if you will rule. That is the real secret. Your love will tell even if your words be harsh. Instinctively men feel the love clothed in whatever language. (These two paragraphs and the last half of the fourth were written in English.)
My dear brother, that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was God incarnate, I have not
the least doubt; but then you must let people find out for themselves what
he used to teach — you cannot thrust these things upon them — this is my
only objection.
Let people speak out their own opinions, why should we object? Without
studying Ramakrishna Paramahamsa first, one can never understand the real
import of the Vedas, the Vedanta, of the Bhâgavata and the other Purânas.
His life is a searchlight of infinite power thrown upon the whole mass of
Indian religious thought. He was the living commentary to the Vedas and to
their aim. He had lived in one life the whole cycle of the national
religious existence in India.
Whether Bhagavân Shri Krishna was born at all we are not sure; and Avataras
like Buddha and Chaitanya are monotonous; Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is the
latest and the most perfect — the concentrated embodiment of knowledge,
love, renunciation, catholicity, and the desire to serve mankind. So where
is anyone to compare with him? He must have been born in vain who cannot
appreciate him! My supreme good fortune is that I am his servant through
life after life. A single word of his is to me far weightier than the Vedas
and the Vedanta. [25_brother_shivananda_01.jpg] — Oh, I am the servant of
the servants of his servants. But narrow bigotry militates against his
principles, and this makes me cross. Rather let his name be drowned in
oblivion, and his teachings bear fruit instead! Why, was he a slave to fame?
Certain fishermen and illiterate people called Jesus Christ a God, but the
literate people killed him. Buddha was honoured in his lifetime by a number
of merchants and cowherds. But Ramakrishna has been worshipped in his
lifetime — towards the end of this nineteenth century — by the demons and
giants of the university as God incarnate. . . . Only a few things have been
jotted down in the books about them (Krishna, Buddha, Christ, etc.). "One
must be a wonderful housekeeper with whom we have never yet lived!" so the
Bengali proverb goes. But here is a man in whose company we have been day
and night and yet consider him to be a far greater personality than any of
them. Can you understand this phenomenon?
You have not yet understood the wonderful significance of Mother's life —
none of you. But gradually you will know. Without Shakti (Power) there is no
regeneration for the world. Why is it that our country is the weakest and
the most backward of all countries? — Because Shakti is held in dishonour
there. Mother has been born to revive that wonderful Shakti in India; and
making her the nucleus, once more will Gârgis and Maitreyis be born into the
world. Dear brother, you understand little now, but by degrees you will come
to know it all. Hence it is her Math that I want first. . . . Without the
grace of Shakti nothing is to be accomplished. What do I find in America and
Europe? — the worship of Shakti, the worship of Power. Yet they worship Her
ignorantly through sense-gratification. Imagine, then, what a lot of good
they will achieve who will worship Her with all purity, in a Sattvika
spirit, looking upon Her as their mother! I am coming to understand things
clearer every day, my insight is opening out more and more. Hence we must
first build a Math for Mother. First Mother and Mother's daughters, then
Father and Father's sons — can you understand this? . . . To me, Mother's
grace is a hundred thousand times more valuable than Father's. Mother's
grace, Mother's blessings are all paramount to me. . . . Please pardon me. I
am a little bigoted there, as regards Mother. If but Mother orders, her
demons can work anything. Brother, before proceeding to America I wrote to
Mother to bless me. Her blessings came, and at one bound I cleared the
ocean. There, you see. In this terrible winter I am lecturing from place to
place and fighting against odds, so that funds may be collected for Mother's
Math. Baburam's mother must have lost her sense owing to old age and that is
why she is about to worship Durga in the earthen image, ignoring the living
one. (Viz. Holy Mother Shri Sarada Devi.) Brother, faith is very difficult
to achieve. Brother, I shall show how to worship the living Durga and then
only shall I be worthy of my name. I shall be relieved when you will have
purchased a plot of land and established there the living Durga, the Mother.
Till then I am not returning to my native land. As soon as you can do that,
I shall have a sigh of relief after sending the money. Do you accomplish
this festival of Durga of mine by making all the necessary arrangements.
Girish Ghosh is adoring the Mother splendidly; blessed is he, and blessed
are his followers. Brother, often enough, when I am reminded of the Mother,
I ejaculate, "What after all is Rama?" Brother, that is where my fanaticism
lies, I tell you. Of Ramakrishna, you may aver, my brother, that he was an
Incarnation or whatever else you may like but fie on him who has no devotion
for the Mother. Niranjan has a militant disposition, but he has great
devotion for Mother and all his vagaries I can easily put up with. He is now
doing the most marvellous work. I am keeping myself well posted. And you too
have done excellently in co-operating with the Madrasis. Dear brother, I
expect much from you, you should organise all for conjoint work. As soon as
you have secured the land for Mother, I go to India straight. It must be a
big plot; let there be a mud-house to begin with, in due course I shall
erect a decent building, don't be afraid.
The chief cause of malaria lies in water. Why do you not construct two or
three filters? If you first boil the water and then filter it, it will be
harmless. . . . Please buy two big Pasteur's bacteria-proof filters. Let the
cooking be done in that water and use it for drinking purposes also, and you
will never hear of malaria any more. . . . On and on, work, work, work, this
is only the beginning.
Yours ever,
VIVEKANANDA.