Swami Vivekananda - London Photo series

Mr. Desai who attended Swamiji’s first public lecture in London recalled: That was the first time I saw the commanding figure of the great swami. He looked more like an Indian Prince than a sadhu (holy man). He had a bhagva patka (ochre colored turban) on his head. He electrified the audience by his grand and powerful oratory. The next day the report appeared in the papers that he was the next Indian after Keshab Chandra Sen, who had surprised the English audience by his magnificent oratory. He spoke on the Vedanta. His large eyes were rolling like anything, and there was such an animation about him that it passeth description. After the meeting was over, the swami took off his turban and put on a huge and deep Kashmiri cap looking like a big Persian hat. 34

❊ ❊ ❊ [From an interview that appeared in The Westminster Gazette, October 23, 1895]
“And what is your attitude towards the Western religions, Swami?”
“I propound a philosophy which can serve as a basis to every possible religious system in the world, and my attitude towards all of them is one of extreme sympathy—my teaching is antagonistic to none. I direct my attention to the individual, to make him strong, to teach him that he himself is divine, and I call upon men to make themselves conscious of this divinity within. That is really the ideal—conscious or unconscious—of every religion.”
And what shape will your activities take in this country?”
“My hope is to imbue individuals with the teachings to which I have referred, and to encourage them to express these to others in their own way; let them modify them as they will; I do not teach them as dogmas; truth at length must inevitably prevail.”
(CW [1979] 5:187-88)