Byrdbrnz

Vivekananda – Part 5

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by

A Byrd
in

Welcome back to the continuing adventures of Swami Vivekananda.

Last we left off in our story, Vivekananda had finally made it to the West. He had some trouble being included in the Parliament of World Religions but, thanks to some fortunate associations he made, he became a last minute addition to the conference. While claims of his success at the conference were wildly over-exaggerated posthumously, it did bring Vivekananda quite a bit of attention and secured him a lecture tour with a lecture bureau.

This time, we’ll be taking a look at a relatively short amount of time: 1893 – 1896. Though short, this period of time is packed with events, lectures, and drama. It’s going to be difficult to do a thorough breakdown of every stop he made, but we will be hitting the important points and the rest will be done in highlights.

Once again we have a situation where the Corrective Bio is the most complete record when compared to Nikhilananda’s accounts. There are often points in the narrative where Nikhilananda will veer off course into a tangent and skip whole periods of time, or bring up the influential people Vivekananda met as if to paint him in a more favorable light – despite there being little evidence of these meetings happening. Just as before, most of the information will come from Chattopadyaya’s work in the Corrective Bio.

So without further ado, let’s get into it.

Excerpt from Vivekananda: A Biography by Swami Nikhilananda: "The year following the Parliament of Religions the Swami devoted to addressing meeting in the vast area spreading from the Mississippi to the Atlantic. In Detroit he spent six weeks, first as a guest of Mrs. John Bagley, widow of the former Governor of Michigan, and then of Thomas W. Palmer, President of the World's Fair Commission, formerly a United States Senator and American Minister to Spain. Mrs. Bagley spoke of the Swami's presence at her house as a 'continual benediction." It was in Detroit that Miss Greensitdel first heard him speak. She later became, under the name of Sister Christine, one of the most devoted disciples of the Swami and a collaborator of Sister Nivedita in her work in Calcutta for the educational advancement of Indian women. After Detroit, he divided his time between Chicago, New York, and Boston, and during the summer of 1894 addressed, by invitation, several meetings of the "Humane Conference" held at Greenacre, Massachusetts. Christian Scientists, spiritualists, faith-healers, and groups representing similar views participated in the Conference."

1893

This is a relatively short period of time, spanning only the last couple of months of the year.

He would visit, in order: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and then head back to Minnesota before the end of the year.

At this point, a trend begins to emerge. One that would be the undercurrent for a lot of the way Vivekananda would come to interact with the West for a period of time. Despite Nikhliananda’s previous claims that Vivekananda saw a merging of faiths possible, and despite what Vivekananda had said about the similarities between Christianity and Hinduism – Vivekananda begins his lecture series by calling out Christians.

Excerpt from Vivekananda: A Biography by Swami Nikhilananda: "Swami Vivekananda was especially bitter about false Christianity and the religious hypocrisy of many Christian leaders. In a lecture given is Detroit he came out in one of his angriest moods, and declared in the course of his speech: You train and educate and clothe and pay mean to do what? -- to come over to my country and curse and abuse all my forefathers, my religion, my everything. They walk near a temple and say, "You idolaters, you will go to hell." But the Hindu is mild; he smiles and passes on saying, "Let the fools talk." And then you who train men to abuse and criticize, if I just touch you with the least bit or criticism, but with the kindest purpose, you shrink and cry: "Do not touch us! We are Americans, we criticize, curse, and abuse all the heathens of the world, but do not touch us, we are sensitive plants." And whenever your missionaries criticize us, let them remember this: If all India stands up and takes all the mud that lies at the bottom of the Indian Ocean and throws it up against the Western countries, it will not be doing an infinitesimal part of what you are doing to us."

In his talk in Minneapolis, he accused some Christians of “shopkeeping religion”. In that they always beg God for something. He then called them hypocrites for thinking they “have God”, and basically said “ya’ll a bunch of Sunday Christians”. All this before he went on to say that Hindus believe God is love and that the West needs to learn to “want God” in order to be as wise as Hindus.

This, of course, would not sit well with certain groups. Namely the Christian Nationalists would take issue with this characterization. They would start boycotts and publish articles about Vivekananda in various local newspapers, warning people away from his lectures. While this worked for their base, they would find unlikely allies in another group: the Theosophists.

The Theosophists had more pointed allegations to make, ones that actually made it back to India and caused a bit of a stir among Vivekananda’s supporters. Their assertions were that Vivekananda was breaking caste law and eating foods forbidden to Hindu followers: meats, alcohols, and pungent root vegetables like garlic. When these assertions made their way back to his followers in India, Vivekananda’s followers were shocked and sent letters of their concerns to him.

Excerpt from Vivekananda: A Biography by Swami Nikhilananda: "To the accusation from some orthodox Hindus that the Swami was eating beef and other forbidden food at the table of infidels, he retorted: Do you mean to say I am born to live and die as one of those caste-ridden, superstitious, merciless, hypocritical, atheistic cowards that you only find among the educated Hindus? I hate cowardice. I will have nothing to do with cowards. I belong to the world as much as to India, no humbug about that. What country has a special claim on me? Am I a nation's slave?...I see a greater power than man or God or Devil at my back. I require nobody's help. I have been all my life helping others. To another Indian devotee he wrote in similar vein: I am surprised that you take the missionaries' nonsense so seriously...If the people of India want me to keep strictly to my Hindu diet, please tell them to send me a cook and money enough to keep him...One the other hand, if the missionaries tell you that I have ever broken the two great vows of the sannyasin -- chastity and poverty -- tell them that they are big liars. As for me, mind you, I stand at nobody's dictation, and no chauvinism about me...I hate cowardice; I will have nothing to do with cowards or political nonsense. I do not believe in any politics. God and truth are the only politics in the world; everything else is trash."

How did Vivekananda respond to all this? He initially threw a temper tantrum about what the Christians had to say. When it came to the claims from the Theosophists, he largely just told his followers that he was still totally devout and to not listen to the haters. Reaffirming that he still had not broken the two biggest monastic rules: chastity and poverty.

While we’ll never know if he was indeed still chaste, I do cast some doubt about his poverty claims. It’s true that the monastic vows say that one should remain personally impoverished, it would be difficult to claim that Vivekananda was truly poor when he associated with many wealthy individuals who would frequently dote on him. As we’ll see, he had many Western followers who were all too happy to pay his way through to success.

That, however, if up to debate and interpretation. While I would hesitate to call him truly poor, one could argue that since he didn’t hold the wealth himself he was obeying his vows and thus not in violation. Given that at any moment any of his wealthy followers could have decided to deny him money.

This, however, would be the start of his lecturing life and set the stage for his early time in the West. Nothing much else happens this year as he got started on the lecture circuit late in 1893. The next year, however, would have a lot of interesting developments unfold in it.

1894

At the start of the year, as Vivekananda would begin his lecture touring, he would quickly find himself embroiled in a couple battles. To make it easier to follow, I’ve broken it down into a couple major controversies Vivekananda found himself in and then a brief recounting of the rest of the year.

The first controversy of this year happens fairly early. It all begins in Michigan.

The Controversies of Vivekananda

By mid-February Vivekananda had arrived in Detroit and was staying with the Bagley’s – Mrs. Bagley had been an organizer from the World Parliament. This would turn out to be an unpopular move with people in Detroit. By the time he arrived the local pastors had already begun denouncing Vivekananda’s ideas and those that would harbor him.

Two days after he arrives, he’s invited by a Reverend Ninde to give a couple lectures at the Unitarian Church. Vivekananda takes the stage and begins denouncing the Christian missionaries in India while lecturing on the virtues of the Hindu faith. In lectures later in the month — this would eventually grow into calling Christians selfish worshipers of God, who “want” God more than they “need” Him, and only ask Him for personal blessings rather than the betterment of everyone.

This didn’t sit well with people. Major news publications in Detroit began printing unfavorable reviews of him. Rev Ninde even took to the papers to try and save face with the community — essentially saying he regretted introducing Vivekananda and that everything Vivekananda had said was wrong. Ninde had traveled to India himself and so it came across to many papers as two knowledgeable sources pitted against one another.

In response to these accusations, Vivekananda held another talk where he opened the floor to questions from the community. This became antagonistic quickly as people had shown up to demand that he produce a miracle to prove that Hinduism was so great, or to address the various gruesome rumors he was asked about – specifically the practice of sati or widow burning. To the first case, he refused to entertain the idea of producing a miracle, and to the second charge he lied and said sati was never practiced.

With that, Vivekananda leaves Michigan by the end of the month.

After he left Detroit, the press went crazy with trying to save face and continue support for the missions in India. Many took to finding experts that contradicted Vivekananda’s claims in order to make their point. In particular they would focus in on the claims he makes about the sati.

Given all this renewed discussion and attention towards proving Vivekananda wrong, he ends up going back to Detroit on March 9. On March 11 he spoke at the Detroit Opera House very specifically about Christian Missions in India. According The Detroit Tribune he “attacked Christian Nations” and spoke about how they “kill and murder…import disease into foreign countries, then add insult to injury by preaching of a Crucified Christ.” If the headline is to be believed, “his words were warmly applauded by the audience.”

This wouldn’t be the end of the discussion by a long shot, but it does appear to be the final time Vivekananda openly addressed the missionary crowd himself.

From here, Vivekananda immediately gets into the second controversy of the year. This one is thankfully much shorter lived.

Excerpt from Vivekananda: A Biography by Swami Nikhilananda: "After the meetings of the Parliament of Religions were concluded, Swami Vivekananda, as already noted, undertook a series of apostolic campaigns in order to sow the see of the Vedantic truths in the ready soil of America. Soon he discovered that the lecture bureau was exploiting him. Further, he did not like its method of advertisement. He was treated as if he were the chief attraction of a circus. The prospectus included his portrait, with the inscription, proclaiming his cardinal virtues: "An Orator by Divine Right; A Model Representative of his Race; a Perfect Master of the English Language; the Sensation of the World's Fair Parliament." It also described his physical bearing, his height, the colour of his skin, and his clothing. The Swami felt disgusted at being treated like a patent medicine or an elephant in a show. So he severed his relationship with the bureau and arranged his own lectures himself. He accepted invitations from churches, clubs, and private gatherings, and travelled extensively through the Eastern and MIdwestern states of American, delivering twelve to fourteen or more lectures a week."

After the World Parliament, Vivekananda was signed to a US government-backed lecture group called the Slayton Lyceum. They largely set up his tour and booked the venues that would allow him to speak. The details of the deal were not included in either Nikhilananda’s work or Chattopadhyaya’s work, but it did not seem like a fair business deal and Vivekananda was upset that it made it difficult to fundraise.

That being said, it is largely unknown how he was spending the money he was able to make, outside of hotels, traveling expenses, cigars, and gifts. It would be this return trip to Detroit that would see him finally free of the Lyceum though. With help from a Mr. Palmer – an influential man that Vivekananda was staying with in Detroit – they were able to get him out of the contract and free him up.

The Rest of the Year

Now free of the Lyceum, Vivekananda could begin raising funds on his own without having to give part over to another organization. He had plenty of wealthy friends now: the daughter of Jay Gould, Mrs Cornelius Vanderbilt II – a prominent fashion designer, and others. They all would have given him money at the first word. Yet, curiously, he wrote to Mrs Hale that he was giving up his initial purpose for fund raising and refused to take the money of his friends.

It didn’t keep him from lecturing though. From this point on I wont be mentioning what topics he was talking about unless it’s either a shift in his topics or if the topic caused some sort of controversy. Largely Vivekananda would focus on expounding about the various components of Hinduism through this period.

After leaving Detroit for the second time, Vivekananda would head off to Massachusetts. What records we have of the lectures from this time come from a third party memoir of someone who did not go on to become a follower. His lectures were given in the parlor room of a boarding house Vivekananda had managed to secure housing through, and it was a more informal style of lecture where the local academics and ministers came to debate rather than let him expound uninterrupted.

According to the account we have, Vivekananda was bombarded with arguments as to why Christianity was “the one true religion.” In response to all this, Vivekananda focused solely on using arguments from the Bible to refute their points. None of the arguments or refutations were detailed but the memoir writer did express their awe.

Excerpt from Vivekananda: A Biography by Swami Nikhilananda: ""I shall never forget that memorable evening," wrote and American disciple, "when the Swami appeared single-handed to face the forces of materialism, arrayed in the heaviest armour of law, and reason, and logic, and common sense, of matter, and force, and heredity, and all the stock phrases calculated to awe and terrify the ignorant. Imagine their surprise when they found that, far from being intimidated by these big words, he proved himself a master in wielding their own weapons, and as familiar with the arguments of materialism as with those of Advaita philosophy. He showed them that their much vaunted Western science could not answer the most vital questions of life and being, that their immutable laws, so much talked of, had no outside existence apart from the human mind, that the very idea of matter was a metaphysical conception, and that it was much despised metaphysics upon which ultimately rested the very basis of their materialism. With an irresistible logic he demonstrated that their knowledge proved itself incorrect, not by comparison with that which was true, but by the very laws upon which it depended for its basis; that pure reason could not help admitting its own limitations and pointed to something beyond reason; and that rationalism, when carried to its last consequences, must ultimately land us at something which is above matters, above force, above sense, above thought, and even consciousness, and of which all these are but manifestations." As a result of his explaining the limitations of science, a number of people from the group of free-thinkers attended the Swami's meeting the next day and listened to his uplifting utterances of God and religion."

What was most interesting and amusing about this particular point in time was the memoir writer included some truly human moments of him. The boarding house he was staying in was a woman’s boarding house and many of the women there seemed to enjoy his company; having breakfast with them and teaching, or taking walks with them. Apparently, Vivekananda was also a shower singer, at least according to this memoir.

Either way, his time in Massachusetts didn’t bring a lot of success. Particularly in Lynn, MA. I can only imagine it was because of our favorite Christian Scientist.

By the end of April, Vivekananda had finally moved on to New York. Here is where he would begin amassing followers. Some names that we’ll see pop up again and again: Mary Phillips, the Guernsey’s, Emma Thursby, and Leon Landsberg. These people would become the core group of supporters that would help Vivekananda establish the Vedanta Society later on.

Behind the scenes, Vivekananda had begun instructing followers in India on how to obtain official recognition of his efforts. It’s at about this point that it becomes apparent that what matters most to Vivekananda is not fundraising, but his reputation.

Hindus in the West were constantly challenging him and his ideas, something that began deeply frustrating Vivekananda. They called into question his adherence to his monastic vows as well as his teachings. One went so far as to write to Mr Hale about letting Vivekananda associate with the women in the house. Vivekananda’s retort? The writer was just jealous of his performance at the Parliament.

Despite these challenges to his credibility, however, the brother’s back in India came through for Vivekananda. On four separate occasions during the year the group managed to hold public meetings that honored him. The most prominent and reputation boosting one for Vivekananda was the meeting held in Calcutta. News of it had reached the US and it boosted his credibility in the eyes of Americans, making it far easier for him to fundraise and attract new members.

It helped so much, in fact, that he was invited to attend the Green Acre. Green Acre – now Green Acre: A Baha’i Center of Learning – at this time was just a resort hotel. It would be this summer that the founder, Sarah Farmer, would being the series of Green Acre Confrences which were a series of discussions at the resort that spanned a variety of topics.

Excerpt from Vivekananda: A Biography by Swami Nikhilananda: "The Swami, in the course of a letter to the Hale sisters of Chicago, wrote on July 31, 1894, with his usual humour about the people who attended the meetings: They have a lively time and sometimes all of them wear what you call your scientific dress the whole day. They have lectures almost every day. One Mr. Colville from Boston is here. He speaks every day, it is said, under spirit control. The editor of the Universal Truth from the top floor of Jimmy Mills as settled herself down here. She is conducting religious services and holding classes to heal all manner of diseases, and very soon I expect them to be giving eyes to the blind, etc., etc. After all, it is a queer gathering. They do not care much about social laws and are quite free and happy...There is a Mr. Wood of Boston here, who is one of the great lights of your sect. But he objects to belonging to the sect of Mrs. Whirlpool. So he calls himself a mental healer of metaphysical, chemico, physical-religioso, what-not, etc. Yesterday there was a tremendous cyclone which game a good "treatment" to the tents. The big tent under which they held the lectures developed so much spirituality under the treatment that is entirely disappeared from mortal gaze, and about two hundred chairs were dancing about the grounds under spiritual ecstasy. Mrs. Figs of Mills Company gives a class every morning, and Mrs. Mills is jumping all about the place. They area ll in high spirits., I am especially glad for Cora, for she suffered a good deal last winter and a little hilarity would do her good. You would be astounded with the liberty they enjoy in the camps, but they are very good and pure people -- a little erratic, that is all."

Here is where he would meet his first most faithful donor and follower. Emma Thursby would be in attendance and would introduce him to Mrs Ole Bull. Mrs Ole Bull was a widower of considerable fortune, as they say, and she would lavish a portion of that fortune onto Vivekananda.

After giving a few talks at Green Acre that summer, Vivekananda would seemingly take some time off. Some letters get sent and in them he goes on and on about comparing women of different cultures, and it seems very much like he prefers American women as he considers them the most beautiful. In the end, he makes his way back to Boston for September.

When he arrives, Mrs Ole Bull would invite Vivekananda to stay at her place for awhile. He wouldn’t stay long though and quickly left for Baltimore. For his trip, she gave him $500 and a new suit. This would start their long relationship of financial support. Mrs Ole Bull would continue to fund him, open her home to his classes, and support some of his disciples.

In Baltimore he lectured a few times during the month of October. Nothing too outrageous here, except that he seems to partially denounce reincarnation – in that he personally thinks it to be logical, but that he thinks it only a theory not worth advancing as doctrine. Just something interesting to note for later as his official doctrine would include discussions of reincarnation.

Then Vivekananda heads to New York where he seems to begin the first Vedanta organization. Not a lot is known about it, but he began holding regular lectures and two daily classes at Cambridge, all arranged by Mrs Ole Bull. These lessons were on the topics of the Upanishads, the Gita, and Sankaracharya’s work. Many well-known women were in attendance to these lectures and in a letter to Mrs Hale that December, he mentions that it would be foolish of him to return to the Midwest. By far, he intimated, the East coast was more receptive to his lectures than the Midwest had been and it would be foolish to effectively kill that momentum.

1895

This year was a busy year for Vivekananda. It would see the founding of the Vedanta Society, the gaining of the first ordained Western monastics, and then he rounds out the year with a trip to Europe. Along the way, there’s plenty of drama to go around.

The Founding of the New York Vedanta Society

While technically founded towards the end of 1894, not much is known about the initial start-up phase of the society. It’s speculated that the original members were comprised of Mr Charles Higgins as president, Dr Edward Day as vice-president, Ms Mary Phillips as secretary, and Mr Walter Goodyear as treasurer. In January they would move into their offices in New York’s Tenderloin district.

While classes were initially slow to gain traction, the group very quickly outgrew the small home.

Vivekananda and a Mr Leon Landsberg would move into the home to be its permanent residents. This would set the stage for the first of many dramas with his followers. At the time, Mr Landsberg was not ordained, he was merely one of the devotees of Vivekananda’s. The other devotees who would come to the house began to find Mr Landsberg disagreeable or remarked that he constantly seemed to be in a bad mood. Over what, that was unclear, but it made the others uncomfortable enough to comment to Vivekananda.

It’s unclear why but, armed with this information, Vivekananda would begin to tell Mr Landsberg which of the devotees among them didn’t like him. Combine that with a disagreement about food – Landsberg preferred to eat out, Vivekananda and others preferred to eat at home – and over Vivekananda wanting to move into a larger home, things eventually came to a head between the two. Mr Landsberg would leave the Tenderloin district home while Vivekananda was away one April day…and he would then set up his own Vedanta center a few streets over.

Thousand Island Park

A few months later, in June, Vivekananda decides he has had enough of teaching in hot NYC and he heads to the Canadian border to spend time with some rich friends by the lake. Since he would be gone for the next seven weeks, he appoints someone else to teach classes at the Vedanta society. It’s unclear who that person was as Landsberg, the most likely candidate, was in attendance at the park.

At any rate, he spends some time with these rich friends of his before heading off to Thousand Island Park. Thousand Island Park is a small section of Wellesley Island in upstate New York, right along the Canadian border. It was considered a summer destination for the wealthy and boasted about 10,000 summer tourists at the time.

While Vivekananda spent most of his time meditating and relaxing, he did end up teaching while there. The lessons he would give were recorded in note form by Sarah Ellen Waldo, and they were later edited and published by Sister Devamata (Laura Glenn) in a book called Inspired Talks. Another set of notes from an unidentified student would be published later by Swami Atmaghanananda in 1963. These notes, though I’ve not read either set, seem to reaffirm one another according to Chattopadhyaya’s work. This book would later become the backbone of his Neo-Vedanta teachings.

Additionally, the eleven or twelve people in attendance to his talks would later go on to be teachers themselves. While he was at Thousand Island Park, however, he gave monastic vows to both Mr Landsberg and a woman name Madmoiselle Marie Louise. Landsberg would take the name of Kripananda and I will be referring to him by that name from here forward. Mme Marie Louise would take the name Abhayananda.

Excerpt from Vivekananda: A Biography by Swami Nikhilananda: "By a singular coincidence just twelve disciples were taught by him at the summer retreat, though all were not there the full seven weeks; ten was the largest number present at any one time. Two, Mms. Marie Lousie and Mrs Leon Landsberg, were initiated at Thousand Island Park into the monastic life. The former, French by birth but naturalized American, a materialist and socialist, a fearless, progressive woman worker known to the press and platform, was given the name Abhayananda. The latter, a Russian Jew and member of the staff of a prominent New York newspaper, became known as Kripananda. Both took the vows of poverty and chastity."

Once August rolled around and the tourists left, Vivekananda would head back to NYC.

Brief Trip to Europe

Vivekananda was only back in New York for a week before heading to Paris. Vivekananda had previously made friends with a Mr Francis Leggett, who had extended an invitation to his destination wedding. While nothing much of note happened in Paris, Vivekananda did move on after the wedding and headed to London to keep an invitation he had received there.

London was a different story. He had been invited by a former Theosophical Society member to come and stay and from there would meet other former Theosophical Society members, one of whom happened to adopt a child that was already a devotee of Vivekananda. While there, he made quick devotees of a Miss Margaret Noble and a Mr Sturdy.

Quite a bit would end up happening in London. Not only was he continuing to teach about his concept of a universal religion, but he also had the wild idea to begin a branch of the Vedanta society in London. Mr Sturdy, however, advised against this.

That said, Mr Sturdy also wanted a swami in residence in England. With this in mind Vivekananda requested that one of his fellow monks from India, Saradananda, come and teach in England. Saradananda didn’t want to go initially though the reason is unclear – it could have been due to him being uncomfortable in England, it also could have be due to societal pressures in India to not leave the continent. Either way, Saradananda did eventually arrive in England a few months after Vive had already returned to NY. Additionally, Vive began badgering the disciples in India to open more centers across India…but they didn’t since there was no money for it.

Before he left to go back to the US, he did ordain Ms Noble. She would become Sister Nivedita and would be one of his most devout followers. Sister Nivedita recorded all of her time with Vivekananda and would later publish it in her work The Master as I Saw Him.

Excerpt from Vivekananda: A Biography by Swami Nikhilananda: "His stay in England was very short, but his insight enabled him to appraise the English character with considerable accuracy. He wrote to the devotee on November 18. 1895: "In England my work is really splendid. I am astonished myself at it. The English do not talk much in the newspapers, but they work silently. I am sure of having done more work in England than in America." And in another letter, written on November 13, to a brother disciple in India: "Every enterprise in this country takes some time to get started. But once John Bill sets his hand to a thing, he will never let it go. The Americans are quick, but they are somewhat like straw on fire, ready to be extinguished." The Swami had been receiving letters from American devotees asking him to come back; a rich lady from Boston promised to support his work in New York throughout the winter. Before leaving England, however, he arranged that Mr. Sturdy should conduct the classes in London til the arrival of a new Swami from India, about the need of whom he was writing constantly to his brother disciples at the Baranagore monastery."

Back to the US

Let’s head back to the US before Vivekananda comes back.

While Vivekananada was gone, Kripananda and Abhayananda were busy spreading the word of Raja Yoga. This yoga wasn’t yet codified, that wouldn’t happen until the end of this year, but both monastics would have been trained in it by Vivekananda directly. Of the two, Kirpananda had the most success and was able to enjoy preferential treatment from Mrs Ole Bull and her finances. He spent some time traveling around before coming back and settling in New York where, once Vivekananda returned, he would take over the New York Vedanta Society.

Abhayananda was the one who was having a more difficult time. She had far less success in attracting students to her classes than Kripananda did. Running out of money, she reached out to Vivekananda for more funds and he refused her, telling her that it was her own fault for not being able to attract students. This led to Abhayananda feeling snubbed by the Vedanta Society overall, something she let Mrs Ole Bull know about. In an effort to smooth things over, Mrs Ole Bull tried to mediate a conversation between Abhayananda and Vivekananda to keep Abhayananda in the society. This would backfire, however, and Abhayananda would end up leaving and going her own way.

By the time December came around, the group at the Vedanta Society were finally ready to start the work of publishing books on the four yogas: Bhakti, Jnana, Karma, and Raja yoga. They had been busy preparing transcripts and lecture notes to turn into books. A problem would arise however, as it always seems to go in these stories.

Initially, the notes were sent to England where Mr Sturdy had them published. This, however, would cause an issue with the New York Vedanta Society who already had secured the publishing rights. Obviously this upset the members of the New York Society when they found out that all their hard work was not going to benefit their group.

As a result of this, many of the notes and dictations from Vivekananda’s lectures were scattered about in various different volumes and were highly edited. For the longest time in the US this was the only version available. It wouldn’t be until the most recent editions of Raja Yoga that we would see a mash of various all the various sources, including the notes sent to Mr Sturdy, collected into one print volume.

This disagreement would conclude 1895.

1896

New Year Who Dis

After all the mess with the publishing rights, Vivekananda decides to take some time off and spend Christmas with the Leggett’s before getting back into the swing of things in January.

His lectures at this time would shift focus to discussing this idea of a universal religion. He posits that the role of religion is to become, rather than to believe, and that spiritual nature is what brings happiness to humankind. That being said, Vivekananda is also of the opinion that there will never be one dogma, ritual, or cosmology that speaks to all minds. Which seems, at least to me, to be at odds with this idea of creating a religion in the first place – given that religions are defined by their dogmas, rituals, and cosmologies.

This series of lectures quickly gets abandoned though in February. He changes topics back to Advaita and seemingly abandons mentioning this universal religion for awhile.

During this time he wrote to Mrs Ole Bull and other followers that he was not sleeping well and complained about working too much. Which is quite amusing given that he spent plenty of time at various dinners and soirees, even taking in a play of Sarah Bernhardt’s Izeyl – a show based on the story of Buddha and Amrapali. He also, apparently, met Nikola Tesla at a party this month as well and had been invited to his lab. However, biographies about both Bernhardt and Tesla never mention Vivekananda, so who knows if this is true or not.


Towards mid month, Vivekananda also inducts the first American sannyasin, Dr Street. Street takes the name of Swami Yogananda — not to be confused with the Yogananda that was a direct disciple of Ramakrishna. Yogananda would also go on to teach in Brooklyn in June 1896. Additionally, Miss Emma Waldo, Mr Goodwin, and a Mr Van Haagen all took bhramacharya vows to officially mark themselves as devotees and students.

The Trouble with Kripananda

As one of Vivekananda’s earliest followers and ordained monastics, Kripananda seemed to feel entitled to a certain amount of Vivekananda’s attention. So much so that he felt slighted when Miss Waldo entered the picture. He wrote to Mrs Ole Bull about how he felt like there was no more room in the society for him and he begged her to intervene. Though she would come to the society, it was not on behalf of Kriapananda; instead it would be to accept the responsibility and copyright of publishing Vivekananda’s works into books.

Possibly thinking that he could get back into Vivekananda’s good graces, Kirpananda decides to head off to Detroit. Vivekananda had planned a series of small lectures there and had intended to keep a low-profile, afraid of dealing with retaliation like he had the last time he had been in Detroit. Kirpananda did not get this note. As soon as he arrived in town, Kirpananda had reached out to several papers to give interviews ahead of Vivekananda arriving.

This would lead to quite a bit of drama between the pair.

Because Kripananda had given these interviews to the papers, counter-articles had begun being printed. One of the most prominent counter-articles featured an interview with a Rev Thorburn, a pastor who had been preaching in a Calcutta church during the years that Vivekananda had lived there. He charged that no one in India knew who Vivekananda was when Thoburn has been there, and he produced an article from a missionary journal that indicated the missionaries were surprised that American papers were giving Vivekananda so much attention.

The papers ran with this as a gotcha moment. Papers got ahold of a picture of Ramakrishna to accompany the article, claiming that Ramakrishna was the real head of the order of monks that Vivekananda belonged to. While this wasn’t factually untrue, it did cause a stir among Vivekananda’s followers.

Vivekananda, who was in transit during all of this, arrived to see Ramakrishna’s face plastered all over the front page of the paper. It must have been somewhat of a shock to see his guru’s face. Particularly on the day that he was slated to give what was supposed to be a relatively small lecture.

Seeing this and having to deal with the fallout, Vivekananda turned to Mr Goodwin and Miss Waldo for more information on how this could have happened. The two of them convinced Vivekananda that the reason the photo appeared was because Kirpananda gave the photo to the papers, though it was more likely that Rev Thoburn had been the one to hand it over. Either way, the rift between Vivekananda and Kripananda grew, and from then on Vivekananda largely gave the other monastic the cold shoulder.

London Bound (Again)

After the debacle in Detroit, Vivekananda would head back to Boston. The topic of his classes by this point would shift to focusing on Bhakti Yoga for the remainder of the year. Of course, the year wouldn’t be complete without a few lingering controversies.

By this time it was becoming readily apparent that Vivekananda tended to attract a certain type of student. Newspapers began pointing out that the most common attendee to his lectures were generally upper-class women. Some speculation was made that because of these associations, Vivekananda may not have been keeping his monastic vows. While he would defend himself and claim that he was still chaste, the rumors would follow him around from this point forward, given that he did nothing to try and attract other students to his cause.

Additionally, we also see the emergence of the claim that Vivekananda was offered a position at Harvard. The story told in most biographies is that the president of Harvard at that time had reached out to offer Vivekananda the role of Chair of Eastern Philosophy position, which he declined. The thing is, none of the biographies provide proof for this claim.

Excerpt from Vivekananda: A Biography by Swami Nikhilananda: "On March 25, 1896, he delivered his famous lecture on "The Philosophy of Vedanta" before the graduate students of the philosophy department of Harvard University. It produced such an impression that he was offered the Chair of Eastern Philosophy in the university. Later a similar offer came from Columbia University. But he declined both on the ground that he was a sannyasin."

In the Corrective Biography from Chattopadhayaya, we finally have this discrepancy cleared up.

Chattopadhayaya reached out to the head of the philosophy department back in 1993 while he was doing research. The department head went digging in old records but could find no evidence of an offer being made to Vivekananda at that time. What the department head did find, however, was a statement from the president of Harvard at that time say that he was not very impressed with Vivekananda. Given this, it seems safe to conclude that an offer was not made, but either way it’s all speculation.

After his few classes in Boston, Vivekananda head back to Chicago. He gives a few unnoticed lectures there and then heads back to New York. From there, he would board a ship and sail off towards London for an extended stay.

Which is where we’ll end this exciting addition to the series.

Next time, we’ll take a look at what Vivekananda gets up to while in the UK and in Europe. He then travels back to the US for a West Coast tour, setting up the Vedanta Society out in California along the way. All this with a few controversies thrown in for a little bit of fun!

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