Swami Vivekananda - Inspired Talks by Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda

VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY

BY

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

(Recorded by a disciple during the seven weeks at
Thousand Island Park)

Copyright

TO HIS HOLINESS
SWAMI BRAHMANANDAJI
IN LOVING MEMORY
OF
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
THIS BOOK
IS DEDICATED BY
HIS DEVOTED DISCIPLES.

IMPORTANT BOOKS

By different authors

Universal Prayers

Book of Daily Thoughts and Prayers

The Divine Life

Message of Eternal Wisdom

Upanishad Series

ALL who had the blessing of personal contact with Swmi Viveknanda are of one accord that those who knew him on the lecture platform only, had but a small measure of his true power and greatness. It was in familiar conversation with chosen friends and disciples that came his most brilliant flashes of illumination, his loftiest flights of eloquence, his utterances of profoundest wisdom. Unfortunately, however, his printed works so far have shown us only Viveknanda the lecturer; Viveknanda the friend, the teacher, the loving master, was known only to the happy few who had the rare privilege of sitting at his feet. Glimpses of this side of the great spiritual genius are revealed to us, it is true, in his published letters; but the present volume is the first to give us words spoken by him in the intimacy of an inner circle.

They were taken down by Miss S. E. Waldo of New York, who from the early days of the Swmis American mission served him with unremitting devotion. It was to her that he dictated his translation and explanation of Patanjalis Aphorisms, published in his Raja Yoga, and often has she told me how she would sit for long periods of time watching always to see that the ink on her pen was kept wet, ready to write down the first word that would come as the Swmi would emerge from the depths of self-contemplation into which he had plunged, to discover the true meaning of the terse Sanskrit phrases. It was she also who prepared all his American publications for the press. And so great was Swmi Viveknandas confidence in her ability, that he would pass the type-written transcriptions of his lectures over to her with the instruction to do with them what she thought best; for his own indifference to the fruits of his work was so extreme, that he could not be induced to give even a cursory glance at his recorded words.

Through this constant faithful service with heart and brain, the disciples mind became so at one with the masters that, even without the aid of shorthand, she was able to transcribe his teaching with wonderful fullness and accuracy. As she herself said, it was as if the thought of Swmi Viveknanda flowed through her and wrote itself upon the page. Once when she was reading a portion of these same notes to some tardy arrivals in the Thousand Island Park home, the Swmi paced up and down the floor, apparently unconscious of what was going on, until the travellers had left the room. Then he turned to her and said, How could you have caught my thoughts and words so perfectly? It was as if I heard myself speaking. What need of other commendation?

The Rmakrishna Math of Madras is highly gratified in having been entrusted with the task of presenting these truly Inspired Talks to the public, and it wishes to express its heartfelt gratitude to each one of those who have aided in making this rich treasure, so long hidden, the property of all mankind.

THIS invaluable book is published for the second time. In this edition I have added a few notes where Swmijis utterances may appear to be abrupt and unconnected. Some typographical mistakes also have been attended to and no pains have been spared to make it intelligible to all readers and free from all errors, as far as possible.

Swmiji is known all over the world as the greatest and most powerful exponent of the Vednta in modern times. Many have felt the irresistible charm of his eloquence in India and abroad. In the present case Swamiji did not stand before a vast and critical audience to conquer them by his irrefutable arguments based upon sound logic, his bewitching personality and his rare gifts of explaining the most abstruse subjects in a most perspicuous manner accompanied by his cyclonic eloquence, but he was sitting before a few of his already conquered chosen disciples who had begun to see in him their only guide to take them beyond the ocean of ignorance and misery. There he sat in the glory of his own all-illumining realisation, diffusing all about him, the balmy rays of his inner light by means of his sweet and musical voice, softly raising and opening the lotus buds of the hearts of his ardent devotees. Peace reigned all around him. Blessed indeed were those few fortunate souls who had the rare privilege of sitting at the feet of such a great sage and Guru.

The cyclonic monk was not there carrying everything before him. There sat the peaceful Rishi mildly disseminating the message of peace and bliss to a few ardent souls fully ripe to receive them. How illumining and solacing were those sweet words coming out of his holy mouth like the smiling and breezy dawn, which comes out of the lap of the bright and ruddy east and drives away the darkness before her. If those words had the power to console a few souls, they must have the power to bring comfort to all souls; and blessed be the mother-heart of that loving disciple who preserved those saving words and did not allow them to be lost in the abysmal womb of Eternity. To mother Haridsi (Miss S. Ellen Waldo) the whole world should be grateful for these inspired talks of Swmiji, which have brought into existence the present volume. There cannot be a better friend and a better guide to all humanity than this. Whoever will taste the nectar in it, is sure to know that death has no power over him. May every soul seeking for illumination, rest and peace, have recourse to it to end his or her miseries once for all.

House where Swami Vivekananda lived at Thousand Island Park

The upper open window in the left-hand wing belonged to the Swamis room. The upper piazza was where the evening talks were given and the Swamis seat was at the end near his room.

IN the summer of 1893 there landed in Vancouver a young Hindu Sannysin. He was on his way to attend the Parliament of Religions at Chicago, but not as an accredited delegate from any recognised religious organisation. Unknown and inexperienced, he had been chosen for his mission by a few earnest young men of Madras, who, firm in their belief that he, better than any one, could worthily represent the ancient religion of India, had gone from door to door, soliciting money for his journey. The amount thus collected, together with contributions from one or two princes, enabled the youthful monk, the then obscure Swmi Viveknanda, to set out on his long journey.