Swami Vivekananda - New York

This photograph has also been mistaken for Chicago, 1893. One reason for the misidentification of photo nos. 36 and 37 may be their resemblance to Swamiji’s 1893 Chicago photographs. However in full reproductions of both of these photos, it is clear that they were taken in the same New York studio as no. 35. Sister Devamata recalled in her reminiscences her first impression of Swamiji when she heard him speak in New York in 1895: A sudden hush, a quiet step on the stairs, and Swami Vivekananda passed in stately erectness up the aisle to the platform. He began to speak; and memory, time, place, people, all melted away. Nothing was left but a voice ringing through the void. It was as if a gate had swung open and I had passed out on a road leading to limitless attainment. The end of it was not visible; but the promise of what it would be shone through the thought and flashed through the personality of the one who gave it. He stood there—prophet of infinitude. ❊ ❊ ❊ Individuality is my motto. I have no ambition beyond training individuals up. I know very little; that little I teach without reserve; where I am ignorant, I confess it as such, and never am I so glad as when I find people being helped by Theosophists, Christians, Mohammedans, or anybody in the world. I am a sannyasin; as such I consider myself as a servant, not as a master in the world. . . . Truth will preach itself, it will not die for the want of the helping hands of me! “Making happiness and misery the same, making success and failure the same, fight thou on” (Gita). It is that eternal love, unruffled equanimity under all circumstances, and perfect freedom from jealousy or animosity that will tell. That will tell, nothing else. (CW [1979] 7:487-88)