Swami Vivekananda3
Yesterday was the birthday of Swami Vivekananda, who was a supreme seeker and supreme lover of mankind. He was also the preserver of universal vision. I am invoking his presence.Was Swami Vivekananda a man? Yes, he was. Something else: he was a lover-hero.
Did he really conquer America? Yes, he did. Truth to tell, it was a mutual conquest. Vivekananda conquered America’s seeker-heart. America conquered Vivekananda’s vision-eye.
What did he preach in the West? The Vedanta philosophy. He did something else. In supreme secrecy, soulfully and lovingly on the vital plane, compassionately and unreservedly on the physical plane, persistently and unconditionally on the mental plane, he distributed Sri Ramakrishna’s universal oneness-heart.
Sri Ramakrishna’s blessingful soul loved at once Vivekananda’s silence-heart and his sound-life. To his Naren what he gave was his realisation-ocean. In his Naren what he found was his vision-manifestation. Where? Here, there and all-where.
To the weak Vivekananda had only one thing to say: fear not. To the strong he had only one thing to say: stop not. To God he had only one thing to say: delay not. And to himself he had only one thing to say: ask not.
United Nations, 13 January 1978↩
