Swami Vivekananda at Shillong

(Taken after a long illness) Swamiji wrote to Swami Swarupananda on May 15, 1901: “I have just returned from my tour through East Bengal and Assam. As usual, am quite tired and broken down.” And in a letter to Josephine MacLeod he wrote from Belur Math on June 14, 1901, “As for me, I was thrown hors de combat [disabled] in Assam. The climate of the Math is just reviving me a bit.” ❊ ❊ ❊ Sometimes Swamiji’s well-wishers would try to protect him from too many visitors. On one occasion full of sympathy for all Swamiji exclaimed: Look here! What good is this body! Let it go in helping others. Did not the Master preach till the very end? Shall I not do the same? I do not care a straw if the body goes! You cannot imagine how happy I am when I find earnest seekers after truth to talk to. In the work of waking up the Atman in my fellow men I shall gladly die again and again! (LSV [Kolkata, 1981] 2:635-36)