NO COWARDICE

....If these scoldings don't make you brave, I shall have no more hopes of you. I want to see you die even, but you must make a fight. Die in obeying commands like a soldier, and go to Nirvana, but no cowardice.

- Swami Vivekananda
21 West 34 St..., New York, 21st November, 1899

I WANT BOLD, DARING, ADVENTUROUS SPIRITS TO HELP ME

The upshot of the whole thing is - I want bold, daring, adventurous spirits to help me. Else I will work alone. I have a mission to fulfil. I will work it out alone. I do not care who comes or who goes.

- Swami Vivekananda

BRAVO, MY COUNTRYMEN!

“.....a year has rolled by, and our countrymen could not even do so much for me as to say to the American people that I was a real Sannyasin and no cheat, and that I represented the Hindu religion. Even this much, the expenditure of a few words, they could not do! Bravo, my countrymen! I love them, Diwanji Saheb. Human help I spurn with my foot. He who has been with me through hills and dales, through deserts or forests, will be with me, I hope; if not, some heroic soul would arise some time or other in India, far abler than myself, and carry it out. So I have told you all about it. Diwanji, excuse my long letter, my noble friend, one of the few who really feel for me, have real kindness for me. You are at liberty, my friend, to think that I am a dreamer, a visionary; but believe at least that I am sincere to the backbone, and my greatest fault is that I love my country only too, too well “
*
- Swami Vivekananda
CHICAGO, 20th June, 1894


 

BOOKS AND LEARNING, YOGA AND MEDIATION

" Books and learning, Yoga and mediation and illumination - all are but dust compared with love. It is love that gives you the supernatural powers, love that gives you bhakti, love that gives illumination, and love, again, that leads to emanicpation "

- Swami Vivekananda
Page 342. Letters of Swami Vivekananda

HUMAN HELP I SPURN WITH MY FOOT.

Human help I spurn with my foot. He who has been with me through hills and dales, through deserts or forests, will be with me, I hope; if not some heroic soul would arise some time or other in India, far abler than myself and carry it out.

- Swami Vivekananda
Page 116. Letters of Swami Vivekananda

Interesting Incidents from the Life of Swami Vivekananda – Part 3

Swamiji has had a very peculiar experience since his very boyhood; he occasionally felt that certain events or circumstances that come in his life were a repetition of something he was already acquainted with. Here is the account of the same in his words:

From my very boyhood, whenever I came in contact with a particular object, man or place, it would sometimes appear to me as if I had been acquainted with it beforehand. But all my efforts to recollect the particulars were unsuccessful, and yet the impression persisted. I will give you an instance: One day I was discussing various topics with my friends at a particular place. Suddenly something was said, which at once reminded me that in some time past in this very house I had talked with these friends on that very subject and that the discussion had even taken the same turn. Later on I thought that it might be due to the law of transmigration. But soon I decided that such definite conclusions on the subject were not reasonable. Now I believe that before I was born I must have had visions somehow, of those subjects and people with whom I would have to come in contact in my present birth. Such memories have come every now and then throughout my life.

Interesting Incidents from the Life of Swami Vivekananda – Part 2

Swami Vivekananda used to see two contradictory ideals as soon as he went to bed at night; given below is the complete description in Swamiji’s words:

As soon as I went to bed, two ideals appeared before me every night ever since I had reached my youth. One vision presented me as a person of endless wealth and prosperity, innumerable servants and dependants, high rank and dignity, great pomp and power. I thought that I was seated at the head of those who were called big men in the world. I felt I certainly had the power to achieve this end. Again, the next moment, I felt as if I had given up everything of the world and was leading a life of renunciation, putting on a loincloth, eating whatever was available without effort, spending nights under trees, and depending solely on God’s will. I felt I could live the life of the Rishis and the Munis if I wanted. These two opposite pictures, according to which I could mould my life, thus arose in my mind. But the latter would grip the mind in the end. I thought that it was in this way alone that man could attain real bliss, and that I should follow this path and not the other. Brooding on the happiness of such a life, my mind would then merge in the contemplation of God and I would fall asleep. It is a matter of astonishment that this happened every night, for a long time.