Swami Vivekananda - California Powerful eyes

Ida Ansell recalled as she was leaving Camp Taylor in northern California: “He [Swamiji] took me up the steep steps to the railroad track and flagged the train for me. There was no station and the train stopped only on signal. Swamiji’s carriage was magnificent. His eyes were always turned skyward, never down. Someone said of him that he never saw anything lower than a telegraph pole. When the engine passed us, as the train slowed down, I heard the fireman say to the engineer, ‘Hellow! Who is this sky pilot?’ I had never heard the expression and was puzzled at first as to its meaning. Then I realized that it must mean a religious leader, and that it was evident to anyone who saw him that Swamiji was such a leader.” (RSV, 371-72) ❊ ❊ ❊ [Camp Taylor, California, May 1900] The first night around the campfire Swamiji told his companions: “‘Imagine that you are yogis, living in the Indian forest. Forget your cities, forget everything. Think only of God. See,’ he said, pointing to the stream flowing nearby, ‘here is Mother Ganges.’ And they lighted the Dhuni and sat around it and he taught them how to meditate and to make japam. And facing the stream he would shout: ‘Hara, Hara, Vyom, Vyom! Hara, Hara, Vyom, Vyom!’ until that sound vibrated in every mind and the world was forgotten and the soul soared into regions unknown before.” (ND[1987]6:150-51)