24. May you have exceeding love for one another among yourselves

(Translated from Bengali)

U.S.A.,

(November?) 1894.

DEAR KĀLI [ABHEDĀNANDA],

Thanks for all that I come to know from your letter. I had no news of the telegram in question having appeared in the Tribune. It is six months since I left Chicago, and I have not been yet free to return. So I could not keep myself well posted. You have taken great pains indeed! And for this how can I thank you adequately? You have all evinced a wonderful capacity for work. And how can Shri Ramakrishna’s words prove false?—You have got wonderful spirit in you. About Shashi Sānyāl, I have already written. Nothing remains undetected, through the grace of Shri Ramakrishna. But let him found a sect or whatever he will, what harm? “शिवा व: सन्तु पन्थान:—May blessings attend your path!” Secondly, I could not catch the drift of your letter. I shall collect my own funds to build a monastery for ourselves, and if people criticise me for it, I see nothing in this to affect us either way. You have your minds pitched high and steady, it will do you no harm. May you have exceeding love for one another among yourselves, and it would be enough to have an attitude of indifference towards public criticisms. Kālikrishna Bābu has deep love for the cause and is a great man. Please convey my special love to him. So long as there is no feeling of disunion amongst you, through the grace of the Lord, I assure you, there is no danger for you, “रणे वने पर्वतमस्तके वा—be it in battle, in the forest, or on the top of mountains”. “श्रेयांसि बहुविघ्नानि—All noble undertakings are fraught with obstacles”. It is quite in the nature of things. Keep up the deepest mental poise. Take not even the slightest notice of what puerile creatures may be saying against you. Indifference, indifference, indifference! I have already written to Shashi (Rāmakrishnānanda) in detail. Please do not send newspapers and tracts any more. “Take the husking hammer to heaven, and there it will do its husking”, as the Bengali saying goes. The same trudging about here as it was in India, only with the carrying of others’ loads added! How can I procure customers for people’s books in this land? I am only one amongst the many here and nothing more. Whatever the papers and things of that sort in this country write about me, I make an offering of to the Fire-God. You also do the same. That is the proper course.

A bit of public demonstration was necessary for Guru Mahārāja’s work. It is done, and so far so good. Now you must on no account pay any heed to what the rabble may be prattling about us. Whether I make my pile or do whatever else I am reported to, shall the opinions of the riff-raff stand in the way of His work? My dear brother, you are yet a boy, while I am growing grey. What regard I have for the pronouncements and opinions of such people, you should guess from this. So long as you gird up your loins and rally behind me, there is no fear even if the whole world combine against us. This much I understand that I shall have to take up a very lofty attitude. I should not, I think, write to anyone except to you. By the by, where is Gunanidhi? Try to find him out and bring him to the Math with all kindness. He is a very sincere man and highly learned. You must try your best to secure two plots of land, let people say what they will. Let anyone write anything for or against me in the papers; you shouldn’t take the slightest notice. And my dear brother, I beseech you repeatedly not to send me any more newspapers by the basketful. How can you talk of rest now? We shall have rest awhile only when we give up this body. Just do once get up the celebration, brother, in that spirit, so that all the country around may burn with enthusiasm. Bravo! Capital indeed! The whole band of scoffers will be swept away by the tidal wave of love. You are elephants, forsooth, what do you fear from an ant-bite?

The address¹ you sent me reached me long ago and the reply to it has also been despatched to Pyāri Bābu (18 Nov. 1894).

Bear in mind—the eyes are two in number and so the ears, but the mouth is but one! Indifference, indifference, indifference! “न हि कल्याणकृत्कश्चिद्दुर्गतिं तात गच्छति—The doer of good deeds never comes to grief, my dear”. Ah! To fear! and whom are we going to fear, brother? Here the missionaries and their ilk have howled themselves into silence—and the whole world will but do likewise.

“निन्दन्तु नीतिनिपुणा यदि वा स्तुवन्तु
लक्ष्मी: समाविशतु गच्छतु वा यथेष्टम् ।
अद्यैव वा मरणमस्तु शतान्तरे वा
न्याय्यात्पथ: प्रविचलन्ति पदं न धीरा: ॥

—Whether people skilled in policy praise or blame, whether the Goddess of Fortune favours or goes her way, whether death befalls today or after hundreds of years—persons of steady mind never swerve from the path of righteousness” (Bhartrihari, Nitishataka)

You need not even mix with the humdrub people, nor beg of them either. The Lord is supplying everything and will do so in future. What fear, my brother? All great undertakings are achieved through mighty obstacles. हे वीर, कुरु पौरुषमात्मन उपेक्षितव्या जना: सुकृपणा: कामकाञ्चनवशगा:—You valiant one, put forth your manly efforts; wretched people under the grip of lust and gold deserve to be looked upon with indifference. Now I have got a firm footing in this country, and therefore need no assistance. But my one prayer to you all is that you should apply to the service of the Lord that active impulse of manliness which your eagerness to help me through brotherly love has brought out in you. Do not open out your mind, unless you feel it will be positively beneficial. Use agreeable and wholesome language towards even the greatest enemy. The desire for fame, for riches, for enjoyment is quite natural to every mortal, dear brother, and if that agrees well with serving both ways (i. e. serving both God and mammon), why, all men would exhibit great zeal! It is only the great saint who can work, making a mountain of an atom of virtue in others and cherishing no desire but that of the good of the world—“परगुणपरमाणून् पर्वतीकृत्य, त्रिभुवनमुपकारश्रेणिभि: प्रीणयन्त:” etc., (Bhartrihari, Nitishataka, 70). Therefore let dullards whose intellect is steeped in ignorance and who look upon the non-Self as all in all, play out their boyish pranks. They will of themselves leave off the moment they find it too hot. Let them try to spit upon the moon—it will but recoil upon themselves. शुभं भवतु तेषाम् —Godspeed to them! If they have got anything substantial in them, who can bar their success? But if it be only empty swagger due to jealousy, then all will be in vain. Haramohan has sent rosaries. All right. But you should know that religion of the type that obtains in our country does not go here. You must suit it to the taste of the people. If you ask them to become Hindus, they will all give you a wide berth and hate you, as we do the Christian missionaries. They like some of the ideas of the Hindu scriptures—that is all. Nothing more than that, you should know. The men, most of them, do not trouble about religion and all that. The women are a little interested—that is all, but no large doses of it! A few thousands of people have faith in the Advaita doctrine. But they will give you the go-by if you talk obscure mannerisms about sacred writings, caste, or women. Everything proceeds slowly, by degrees. Patience, purity, perseverance.

Yours etc.,
VIVEKANANDA.

Notes

1. The Address presented by the citizens of Calcutta who gathered at a meeting at the Town Hall on September 5, 1894, under the Presidentship of Rājā Pyāri Mohan Mookherjee. ↩