The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 9/Letters - Fifth Series/CCXXIII Mademoiselle
CCXXIII
To Mme. Emma Calvé
[This letter of condolence was written upon the death of Mme. Calvé’s father and enclosed in a letter to Miss Josephine MacLeod.]
THE MATH, BELUR
HOWRAH DISTRICT
BENGAL, INDIA
the 15th May 1902
MY DEAR MADEMOISELLE,
With great sorrow I learn the sad bereavement that has come upon you.
These blows must come upon us all. They are in the nature of things, yet
they are so hard to bear.
The force of association makes out of this unreal world a reality; and the longer the company, the more real seems the shadow. But the day comes when the unreal goes to the unreal, and, ah, how sad to bear.
Yet that which is real, the Soul, is ever with us, omnipresent. Blessed is the person who has seen the real in this world of vanishing shadows.
I hope, dear Mademoiselle, you have greatly improved in health since our
last meeting in Egypt.
May the Lord always shower His choicest blessings on you is the everlasting
prayer of
VIVEKANANDA